Derry Girls

"Dirty English bastards!" rages Granda Joe at boybands gyrating on the TV. So now may not be the best time for the girls to announce their trip to a Take That gig in Belfast. Despite being forbidden, they'll do anything to get there. Cue a pilgrimage involving Sister Michael and escaped polar bears.

Saoirse-Monica Jackson interview

The star of Channel 4's comedy hit talks fame, facial contortions and globalising Northern Irish slang.

Has Derry Girls jumped the shark?

The latest episode of Derry Girls received mixed response from fans on social media leaving us asking - is the hit comedy show starting to flop?

Derry Girls: a mature, deft & irresistibly funny comedy

In season two, Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and co embark on a peace initiative adventure holiday - with surprising enthusiasm.

Judith Roddy blazes through this episode as Ms De Brún, an iconoclastic new English teacher who rides into town to unlock the girls' inner fiery poets. While the younger generation are baring their souls, smudging their eyeliner and getting into red wine ("It tastes a bit like blood!"), the elders are off to the pictures to be baffled by The Usual Suspects. This is premium sitcom, metronomically doling out a laugh every 10 seconds with apparently no effort. Perfect.

Derry Girls episode 2, review

Iconoclastic sitcom that deserves its growing reputation.

Derry Girls, written by Lisa McGee, was another returning comedy that refused to succumb to "difficult second series" syndrome. Set in 1990s Northern Ireland, against the backdrop of the Troubles, Derry Girls once again boasted a sprawling cast with spirit to burn. Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) pontificated about peace from a bath, while Orla (Louisa Harland) sniped: "She's pretending she's on Parkinson again." Ma Mary (Tara Lynne O'Neill) obsessed over a "big bowl", while lesbian Clare (Nicola Coughlan) suffered Da Gerry's (Tommy Tiernan's) attempts to bond with her about kd lang ("You're very talented people").

This episode featured a hopeless Protestant/Catholic school bonding trip, not helped by Jamie Lee O'Donnell's incorrigible Michelle, a girl so lairy I wouldn't put it past her to give a priest a wedgie. Meanwhile, "Small angry penguin woman" Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney) was on scene-stealing form again: "You'll go far in life, Jenny, but you'll not be well liked."

Derry Girls has been rightly praised for turning tired Northern Irish stereotypes to ashes in front of our eyes. It's also damn funny, with an ensemble so fine-tuned it verges on comedic ballet, and prickly writing that even dares to lampoon the yearning for peace: "All right, Erin, there's no need to make a big song and dance about it". Great stuff.

Derry Girls took me back to the best & scariest holiday

Bomb scares and shootings were nothing to a teenage boy compared with the self-assured swagger of a girl who knew way more than me.