The fourth season of Sex Education has officially begun filming in Wales, Netflix have confirmed. The hugely popular show, which began in 2019, follows teenager Otis, played by Asa Butterfield, and his sex therapist mother Dr Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson), as he and his friends navigate relationships at Moordale.
Joining Asa and Gillian is a star-studded cast, including Emma Mackey, new Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells, and Aimee Lou Wood. Also confirmed to be returning is Kedar Williams-Stirling, Mimi Keene, George Robinson, Chinenye Ezeudu, Dua Saleh, Alistair Petrie and Samantha Spiro.
In this series, the cast will also joined by Emmy award winning actor and Schitt’s Creek star, Dan Levy, who is playing Thomas Molloy, a famous author and Maeve’s (Emma Mackey) US course tutor at her Ivy League college. However, not everyone from the series' past will be making a comeback.
Read more: Sex Education is looking for extras for its fourth series and it could be you
Rakhee Thakrar, who has played teacher Emily Sands for the last three series, has confirmed she is "not part of the new series", but said she was "so proud of the show and grateful to have been part of something so important".
Also not returning is Tanya Reynolds, who plays Lily in the show. Tanya told Digital Spy: "I think that for Lily, her storyline was just wrapped up quite nicely at the end of season three. So she's got no loose ends to tie up, she had quite a happy ending.
"At the end of last season, everyone kind of gets scattered, and I think that's just a good opportunity to bring in some new characters."
Patricia Allison, who played Lily’s girlfriend Ola, isn’t returning either. "I won't be joining the team for season 4," Patricia said, in a radio interview on Capital Xtra breakfast. "I absolutely have loved my time on Sex Education, and I'm so sorry to have to break that to you guys." Bridgerton's Simone Ashley will also not be returning to the role of Olivia.
The news comes following a visit to the set from Wales’ First Minister, Mark Drakeford. He said: “I am pleased we have been able to back Sex Education, one of the biggest success stories for the industry in Wales and one of Netflix’s biggest hits globally.
“The opportunities provided by the production, shows the range of schemes and programmes available through the Young Person’s Guarantee. Young people hold the key to Wales’ future success and there will be no lost generation here as a result of the pandemic”.
Sex Education itself has had a significant positive impact on the Welsh economy and is providing valuable training opportunities for the next generation of talent, with trainees employed on each series.
The Welsh Government has financially supported two of the last three series of the popular drama, through Creative Wales. Since Creative Wales was established in January 2020, £12.8m of production funding has been successfully awarded to 19 projects generating over £139m of production spend into the Welsh Economy.
The new season of the show has offered a further 11 trainee placements, and across all four seasons, over 60 trainee roles have been created. In addition some trainees from earlier series have also returned as full-time crew in subsequent series, helping to further develop the crew base in Wales. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
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