Louisa Harland

Derry Girls talk about their platform for change

Stars of the hit show told The Big Issue what causes they're willing to fight for in this week's magazine as Nicola Coughlan heads to Westminster to protest Northern Ireland's abortion laws.

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 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.

Written 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.

Finishing this week was Derry Girls; Lisa McGee's semi-autobiographical sitcom set during the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1990's. When I wrote about the first episode I talked about how my favourite moments involved the family of the comedy's protagonist Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) specifically her parents Mary and Gerry (Tara Lynne O'Neill and Tommy Tiernan) and her granddad Joe (Ian McElhinney). This assertion proved to be an accurate assessment of Derry Girls as I personally felt the family scenes clicked more than when Erin had to overcome a series of problems with her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland) and hapless friends Clare and Michelle (Nicola Coughlan and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) as well as Michelle's awkward English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn). The scenes with the youngsters felt awfully cartoonish as if they'd been lifted from the pages of a Beano-esque comic strip with the actresses not helping the cause by overplaying their parts. Conversely the scenes between Erin's family were well-constructed and well-played including a subplot in the fourth episode where Mary and sister Sarah (Kathy Kiera Clare) where horrified when they'd learnt Joe had a new lady friend. I similarly enjoyed the fifth episode where the family were going on their annual holiday that coincided with the Orange March and discovered that they were harbouring a stowaway who wanted to cross the border. But it was Thursday's finale that showed the most promise as every character was perfectly utilised and the comedy felt more authentic than it had done throughout the series. Whilst the storyline involving Erin's family and a lost camera shop docket was hilarious as ever, it was the plot revolving around the girls which provided more memorable moments. With Erin single-handedly attempting to run the school's magazine, she stole a story from an anonymous pupil writing about how hard it was to be secretly gay. When the author of the piece was revealed to be Claire, Erin questioned her friendship with her only for the pair to come together to support Orla's strange step-aerobic-themed entry to the school's talent show. This was the first time where an episode of Derry Girls impressed me and I finally saw what others who'd be raving about the comedy all series had seen from the outset. I'm now hoping that the already-announced second will capitalise on the promise evidenced in the series one finale because if it does Derry Girls could be one of Channel 4's best sitcoms of the last few years.

Derry Girls is the funniest thing on TV

Lisa McGee's sitcom has already been renewed for another series by Channel 4, and deserves it for its wicked sense of humour and pitch-perfect 90s nostalgia.

Derry Girls, episode three review

Derry Girls (Channel 4) feels like an indie antidote to the full-on populism of Mrs Brown's Boys.

Derry Girls: comedy you need to beat the January blues

Lisa McGee's coming of age tale is causing a stir online - here's why.

Set in the early 1990's, Derry Girls focuses on Erin (Saoirse Jackson); an aspiring author whose inner most thoughts are communicated via her diary. One of my favourite gags in the entire episode came early on when we heard an exert from Erin's diary only to learn it was her younger cousin Orla (Louisa Harland) who was reading it out loud. Completing the gang are pious Claire (Nicola Coughlan); who is participating in a 24-hour fast in this opening instalment and foul-mouthed troublemaker Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell). One of the big plot points in episode one is the introduction of Michelle's English cousin James who has become the first ever male pupil at the quartet's all girls school as they feared that he would've been beaten up had he attended a neighbouring boys school. Whilst there were elements of Derry Girls that I enjoyed, I found the humour to be quite basic in some places especially in one specific set piece. The most interesting piece element of the comedy is the historical backdrop and I felt that part of the plot was handled quite well. McGee makes it quite clear that the girls are used to having their bus ride diverted by bomb threats and seeing armed soldiers on a daily basis. As a child of the 1990's, I enjoyed the nostalgic references to Macaulay Culkin and Murder She Wrote as well as the period soundtrack. The parts of the first episode that I enjoyed was the interactions between Erin and her parents (Tommy Tiernan and Tara Lynne O'Neill) as this is where the dialogue felt more realistic. However, the dialogue between the girls didn't have the same ring of truth about it and at times felt quite cliched. The punchlines to the central gags were quite obvious with James complaints about the lack of boys' toilets ending with him relieving himself in a bin while Claire broke her fast by chewing on the sandwich of a recently deceased nun. As I think it's quite harsh to judge a sitcom by its first episode alone, especially as this opener was only 22 minutes long, I'm think I'm at least going to watch Derry Girls' second episode before I dismiss it entirely. This is due to the glimpses of promise I saw in the family scenes as well as the references to the early-1990's which appeal to someone like me who grew up during that time.