Sex Education: The show that changed sex on TV forever

When she worked on the season two storyline in which Lily (Tanya Reynolds) deals with vaginismus – a condition rarely spoken about, let alone portrayed on screen – the show’s “detail-oriented approach” came into its own. “Everyone involved was committed to making it as authentic as possible,” O’Brien says, which meant she was given “time and budget” to research the full range of vagina dilators available on the market. For this reason, O’Brien believes “viewers with vaginismus were able to watch those scenes and think, ‘I feel seen’.”

Sex Education has carved out a reputation for exploring facets of sexuality that other shows would neither think nor dare to. “One scene that really sticks out comes in season three when Eric and Adam try to have sex for the first time, only to realise that they’re both bottoms,” Opie says. For him, this moment was not just “funny and heartfelt”, but also “ground-breaking” because it is “rare to see the mechanics of gay sex play out so poignantly in a teen setting”.

Opie also believes that Sex Education has made great strides by approaching more familiar storylines in an uncommonly nuanced way. He cites the fallout from a sexual assault that Aimee experiences in season two as an especially powerful example. “In most shows, [it] would have been covered in one or two episodes max, but in Sex Education, Aimee’s trauma doesn’t magically go away when the credits roll,” he says. Ford also hails the way this storyline “portrays the slow-burn of trauma” in a heartbreakingly realistic way. “At first Aimee laughs off what happened to her, but it slowly starts to eat away at her confidence and she feels embarrassed to talk about how much it is affecting her,” Ford notes, calling the overall effect “gut-punching”.