Sex Education Series 3 (2021)

Three actors pose in character outside a school. The background shows a building to the left and some trees. The two actors left and centre are dressed in colourful clothing and the actor on the right wears black and grey.

Sex Education Series 3 (2021) – Aimee Lou Wood, Emma Mackey and Chris Jenks in Episode 1 © Netflix

Writer: Laurie Nunn
Director: Ben Taylor
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa
Production Company: Eleven
Kent Locations Used: Shorncliffe Military Cemetery,  The Hawthorne Trench, Folkestone Harbour Arm

Sex Education (2021) is a TV comedy series about teenage boy Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield (MerlinAshes to Ashes) with a sex therapist mother (Gillian Anderson (The Crown Series 1 – 6 (2016-2022), The Great (2020-2023)), who teams up with high school classmate Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa (Stonemouth, Bob Servant)) to set up an underground sex therapy clinic at school.

Produced by Eleven for Netflix, the series was written by Laurie Nunn (Pregnant PauseRadiance) and directed by Ben Taylor (Year of the Rabbit (2019), Cockroaches). Series 3 starts with a slightly more grown up, sassier Otis. He is joined by three new characters; Jemima Kirke (Maniac, Girls) playing new headmistress Hope, Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter series, The Patriot) playing Peter Groff and songwriter Dua Saleh, in their acting debut as Cal, a nonbinary student.

During filming, production visited Shorncliffe Military Cemetery in Sandgate which doubles as a WWII cemetery in France in Episode 5, and The Hawthorne Trench near Canterbury which doubles as a WWII trench experience in France in the same episode. Production also visited the Harbour Arm in Folkestone Harbour to film a scene for Episode 7 with Maeve (Emma Mackey) and Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) reuniting with Maeve’s younger sister. Sandgate is a village in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, it has a pebble beach, two castles and Martello Towers. A recent TV drama filmed in the area which is due to air in 2022.

Hawthorne Trench, located in Elham near Canterbury, is an area of recreated World War One trench systems which totals over 250 metres. Currently the Trench consists of an Officers’ dugout, regimental aid posts, cookhouses, railway systems, latrines as well as front and second line which is connected by communication trenches. The trench is located on a 25-acre field with nearby woodland which can also be used for filming.

Folkestone is a seaside town with an elegant clifftop promenade, a coastal park, fishing harbour and Victorian cliff-top lifts. Folkestone Harbour is a popular filming location, recent TV dramas to film here include Back to Life Series 1-2 (2019-2021) and Pistol (2022).

Series 3 of Sex Education was released on Netflix on Friday 17th September 2021.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map