How Derry Girls became an instant sitcom classic

Lisa McGee's nostalgic sitcom finished its run on Channel 4 last week. Why did this tale of four schoolgirls, set against the tumult of 90s Northern Ireland, strike such a chord?

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.

Real Derry Girls revel in TV show's wit

C4 comedy set in the Troubles has won fans for its witty and authentic portrayal of the early 1990s.

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 writer Lisa McGee explains THAT ending

The hit Channel 4 comedy came to a rather poignant end so we caught up with its creator - and the girls themselves - to get the inside story.

Derry Girls challenges image of NI during The Troubles

Lisa McGee explains why she put the strong, warm women of Derry at the centre of a comedy set during Northern Ireland's darkest days.

The Troubles have rarely registered as much more than a tiresome background hum in Lisa McGee's fabulous sitcom. Tonight, marching season brings them into sharper focus. Rehearsals are under way ("They've played the same three songs since 1795. What do they need to rehearse for?") and a holiday is mooted. Heart and hilarity in spades.

The Irish women making TV's best comedies

From Channel 4's Derry Girls to RTE's Nowhere Fast, female-led Irish comedies are coming thick and fast. We talk to the people behind them, and ask if they can help drive societal change.

Thank you, Derry Girls, for telling the truth

There have been times, I must admit, when I have quietly put off watching plays and television series set in Troubles-era Northern Ireland. It's not that I don't think they will be good. It's just that, having grown up there in the 1970s and 1980s, with stories of grim tit-for-tat murders regularly on the nightly news, I sometimes have to brace myself imaginatively to re-enter the bullets and barbed-wire side of our history: it might be painful if a dramatist conveys the events and atmosphere accurately, and painful in another way if they don't.This caveat does not apply to Derry Girls, the new Channel 4 series by Lisa McGee, which follows a bunch of 16-year-old Catholic schoolgirls in the early Nineties.