Is this the end? Sex Education‘s fourth season made headlines before its premiere after several cast members confirmed their departures from the show.
In July 2022, Patricia Allison announced she would not be reprising the role of Ola in the upcoming season.
“I absolutely have loved being on Sex Education so, so much … but unfortunately, I won’t be joining the team for season 4,” the actress, who appeared in the series since 2019, said during an episode of U.K. radio show “Breakfast With Yinka and Shayna Marie.” “Some other opportunities have come up. I’ve been doing it for three years, and I’ve genuinely loved it.”
The England native admitted it wasn’t easy to part ways with the show. “Absolutely [it was difficult],” she continued. “I guess I have to say goodbye at some time, which is kind of sad, but other things are coming.”
Sex Education explores high school students such as Otis (Asa Butterfield), Maeve (Emma Mackey), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ola as they deal with ups and downs in their daily lives. The show, which also starred Simone Ashley and Gillian Anderson, specifically addressed personal issues that teenagers go through including sexual intimacy.
As season 4 wrapped up filming, Gatwa shocked fans with the news of his own exit. “Last day. Last time. Bye bubs, thank you for all the lessons and for all the strength,” the BAFTA award winner, who joined the cast of Doctor Who in 2022, captioned a February 2023 Instagram photo from set.
Meanwhile, Mackey seemingly addressed why several stars of the show were ready for a fresh start after season 4.
“It’s just always tricky, it’s different when you’re playing a character that is sort of stuck in time. You know, we’re playing 17-year-olds, and we’re all almost 30, it is a bit weird,” she told Total Film that same month. “It’s something that has given us opportunities in different ways, but it’s something that I want to gracefully exit from and be happy that it exists and protect it and enjoy it in the time that it has existed in. But yeah, it needs to be left alone now I think.”
The Barbie star continued: “It’s just so contained and so condensed and intense when you’re shooting those kinds of things. We well up just thinking about how far we’ve come from when we were 21 and had our first auditions to where we are now.”
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