Normal People's Paul Mescal shares his family's reaction to those sex scenes

Hilarious and painfully awkward in equal measure

There's no denying that the BBC's adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People has been an instant hit. With more than 16 million hits on iPlayer in its first week, it quickly became the platform's most successful new show – a record previously held by Killing Eve.

It's hard to pinpoint just one reason as to why we've all fallen so deeply in love with the show; here, our digital features editor Jenny explains why it's making her re-evaluate every relationship she's ever been in.

There's no denying that there are a lot of sex scenes involved, with high praise for the show's accurate representations of sex between young people. So on Friday night, when lead actors Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal (who play main characters Marianne and Connell) appeared on The Graham Norton Show, it of course came up – including how their families managed the situation when they watched it.

‘My granny warned my great aunt that there were a lot of sexy bits, and that when she felt those were about to happen, she should go off and do something else,' Paul explained.

‘In episode two, when we started kissing, she took the dog out. But she underestimated the time it would take, and as she came back in we were right in the throes of it all.'

LOL.

‘I suggested that a good, long chore or a couple of cups of tea would do the trick next time!’ he added.

The three also discussed the popularity of 'Connell's chain' – which, in case you missed it, now has its own Instagram account with more than 115k followers. Try not to be devastated when you find out what happened to the chain after the show had finished filming, though.

Too funny.

If you're yet to binge-watch the show, consider your weekend plans sorted.

*Follows @connellschain immediately*