Ian McElhinney
- Actor
Press clippings
The Derry Girls finale review
Sublime television - poignant, political and properly funny.
Adrian Lobb, The Big Issue, 18th May 2022Derry Girls Series 3 review
Lisa McGee's electric depiction of adolescent monomania is back for one last time.
Nick Hilton, The Independent, 12th April 2022Derry Girls review: Channel 4's pride and joy
The show's final series is hilariously written and brilliantly acted, with a top-class celebrity cameo thrown in for good measure.
Anita Singh, The Telegraph, 12th April 2022The oral history of Derry Girls
As the runaway Channel 4 success prepares to wave goodbye with its new series, we talk to all the key players and cast about its legacy.
Daniel Dylan Wray, Vice.com, 12th April 2022The Outlaws review
Star-studded Stephen Merchant series is Walken in a cringe comedy wonderland.
Harry Fletcher, Metro, 25th October 2021Stephen Merchant's The Offenders gets second series
Stephen Merchant's new BBC One comedy, co-starring Christopher Walken, has been renewed for a second series whilst filming on the first is ongoing.
British Comedy Guide, 13th January 2021Christopher Walken confirmed for Stephen Merchant's The Offenders
Christopher Walken has been confirmed as leading the cast of Stephen Merchant's BBC comedy drama The Offenders, which has resumed filming.
British Comedy Guide, 14th December 2020Derry Girls returns for third series on Channel 4
Channel 4 has ordered a third series of hit sitcom Derry Girls following record ratings for the second series, which finished airing this week.
British Comedy Guide, 9th April 2019The 50 best TV shows of 2018: No 6 - Derry Girls
The year's breakout comedy was a giddy mix of poignancy and nostalgia - and its subject matter couldn't have been timelier.
Shilpa Ganatra, The Guardian, 13th December 2018Written by Lisa McGee (who also wrote London Irish), Derry Girls was commissioned for a second series after just one episode, and you can see why. While the initial idea - the antics of 1990s Northern Irish schoolgirls, juxtaposed with the Troubles - doesn't sound too promising, the series has managed to drag giggles out of chip shops, sullen Ukrainian visitors, fake Virgin Mary miracles and more, with the Troubles mainly relegated to a grim background hum or even, sometimes, a mere traffic-related inconvenience.
The result is a fast-paced comedy flipbook, evoking the likes of The Inbetweeners, Father Ted and Bad Education, with a soundtrack featuring everything from Madonna to Vanilla Ice. While the Derry Girls actors range in ages from 20s to early 30s, they and the lone British schoolboy (Dylan Llewellyn) look the part, and you don't have to suspend disbelief as they clatter about like the Irish St Trinian's, led astray by delinquent, foul-mouthed, boy-crazy Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell).
In the last episode of the series, elastic-faced Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) took over the school magazine (proposed cover line: "Shoes of the world"), her earnest sidekick, Clare (Nicola Coughlan), came out as a lesbian, and fey Orla (Louisa Harland) was declared "gifted" at step aerobics. Other characters include menacing Granda Joe (p]Ian McElhinney]), weary Da Gerry (Tommy Tiernan), intense Ma Mary (Tara Lynne O'Neill), eccentric Aunt Sarah (Kathy Kiera Clarke) and acerbic headmistress-nun Sister Michael (Siobhan McSweeney). Derry Girls isn't perfect - sometimes the manic, fizzy-pop energy veers too far into ice-cream headache territory - but there's plenty to justify that second series.
Barbara Ellen, The Guardian, 11th February 2018