For its third series, hit LGBTQ+ teen drama is entering the wild new world of sex – while getting darker and scarier. The cast talk love, longing and courgette pasta

Inside a disused school in Buckinghamshire, grey-locker-strewn hallways have been painted a brilliant blue. Flowers bloom across the floors of long-abandoned classrooms and windows have rainbow hand prints drawn all over them.

This is the set of Heartstopper, the hit Netflix series that follows a set of mostly LGBTQ+ friends as they traverse the rocky terrain of teenage relationships. Each vibrant room is part of its creator Alice Oseman’s drive to match the lively visuals of the graphic novels the TV show is adapted from. They are so vivid that, at times, it feels like the animated sparks you see on screen when characters fall for each other will pop out at any moment.