Derry Girls creator and stars respond to Whittingdale

The stars of Derry Girls have hit back after a leading UK Government minister said that the hit comedy was a great example of "Britishness". Its creator Lisa McGee, hailing from Derry herself, said she "can't be dealing" with the show being called "distinctively British".

Derry Girls set to enter Bake Off tent for New Year

Leading cast members of the Channel 4 comedy hit will try their hand in special show for New Year's Day.

Derry Girls episode 2, review

Iconoclastic sitcom that deserves its growing reputation.

Derry Girls review

A triumphant and exuberant return for the Channel 4 sitcom.

TV preview: Derry Girls, C4

This is a show that rarely hits a bum note.

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.

It's the last episode in what has been an excellent series, so much so that it gets away with having a 31-year-old (Nicola Coughlan) playing a 16-year-old (Clare Devlin). Tonight, though, it's Erin who comes to the fore, desperate for a juicy exclusive for the school magazine. This arrives in the form of a lesbian scandal. Sister Michael, however, played with wonderfully dry cynicism by Siobhan McSweeney, puts the mockers on that. A lovely finale, tinged with a bitter reminder of the Troubles against which it is set.

Derry Girls, episode 1 review

As much a black comedy about the Troubles as a teenage nostalgia fest.