Sex Education is currently riding high as the number one show on Netflix UK right now, after returning for its fourth and final season last week.
However, viewers may well have spotted a number of absentees in the new batch of episodes.
Last year, the show made headlines for a mass exodus among its cast, with a number of key players not returning for the hit streaming show’s final batch of episodes.
Among them were fan-favourites Patricia Allison and Tanya Reynolds, who played couple Ola and Lily in the first three seasons, both of whom revealed in the summer of 2022 that they wouldn’t be returning.
Speaking about the decision not to bring the characters back, Sex Education creator Laurie Nunn told LadBible: “Those storylines felt like they had just come to a really lovely ending in series three, and I felt like the characters of Lily and Ola just really felt like they ended in a really happy place.”
Laurie added: “Particularly because they’re a lesbian couple, I wanted them to not have any more pain or trauma, and just be left happy together. So that felt like a very organic place to leave them.”
At the end of season three, the characters all went off to different schools after Moordale was closed down, with the new batch of episodes seeing Otis, Eric and Aimee settling into a new college, while Maeve is studying overseas.
While a number of key players did not return for season four, the show also introduced a host of new characters into the mix, played by some familiar faces.
All four seasons of Sex Education are now streaming on Netflix.