Lisa McGee

Derry Girls captures teenage girlhood everywhere

Many shows about teens don't push past cliches - but Derry Girls gives us complex, unpredictable characters who are never completely in control.

The first series of Lisa McGee's Derry Girls was a monster of a show - Channel 4's biggest new comedy in five years. A classic sitcom premise married to some timely 1990s nostalgia, where all the teens-go-mad action was flanked by the constant shadow of the Troubles. It's such a perfect formula that a second series cannot feasibly disappoint.

The surprise hit of the sitcom year came from writer Lisa McGee, whose rampaging teens in Northern Ireland in the 1990s had all the reckless energy of the best coming-of-age comedies and, as a distinctive backdrop, the Troubles. Bombings, checkpoints and stories about someone's uncle being tied to a radiator by the IRA added an extra note of absurdity, although McGee's scripts were too smart and agile to belittle the anguish of the times.

Katya, "a child of Chernobyl", comes to stay in Derry. "They've come over to give their wee lungs a bit of a clear out," says a priest, who just about nails the off-key approach that most of the residents of Derry have towards their new visitors. Katya turns out to be more than capable of dealing with her new hosts, but it is the family's reaction to grandad's new relationship with Maev (they winked at each other at mass) that captures the essence of what made Lisa McGee's comedy one of the best of 2018.

The 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.

The new wave of British female TV writers

Women are using their own, often traumatic, life experiences as material for compelling shows.