Why is TV taking sex more seriously? The increased use of intimacy directors, who advise during sex scenes, surely plays a role: both Normal People and Sex Education consulted industry go-to Ita O’Brien. While the role of intimacy director took off following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and its primary aim is to safeguard the cast and crew, O’Brien reckons it also makes for better sex material. "I’m supporting the director and the actors to bring in every nuance and every detail of the storytelling," she says. Leaving sex scenes to the experts adds finesse, she says, raising the example of a scene in which Connell puts on a condom. Getting something like that wrong "takes us as an audience out of the storytelling. You go, 'Well, I don’t believe he’s putting a condom on, and I don’t believe the rest of it now.'" She worked with Mescal on "techniques" (I wimp out of inquiring further) to make it look realistic.