Derry Girls. Image shows from L to R: Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn), Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla McCool (Louisa Harland), Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan). Copyright: Hat Trick Productions
Derry Girls

Derry Girls

  • TV sitcom
  • Channel 4
  • 2018 - 2022
  • 19 episodes (3 series)

A warm, funny and honest look at the lives of ordinary people living under the spectre of the Troubles, all seen through the eyes of a local teenager. Stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Nicola Coughlan, Louisa Harland, Dylan Llewellyn and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 229

Press clippings Page 16

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?

Belfast Telegraph, 13th March 2019

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.

Anna Leszkiewicz, The New Statesman, 13th March 2019

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.

Jack Seale, The Guardian, 12th March 2019

Derry Girls episode 2, review

Iconoclastic sitcom that deserves its growing reputation.

Sean O'Grady, The Independent, 12th March 2019

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.

Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 10th March 2019

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.

Chris Holt, i Newspaper, 8th March 2019

The rise of female-led comedy

I look forward to a time where I won't need to write an article about how great it is that there's more female comedy. It will all just be comedy.

Jordan Maxwell Ridgway, The Boar, 7th March 2019

Derry Girls, Series Two, Channel 4 review

Welcome back, gang.

Owen Richards, The Arts Desk, 6th March 2019

Derry Girls review

This is a comedy about how memory exaggerates childhood, so that all the nuns are monsters, while the mothers do nothing but trade paranoid gossip.

Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 6th March 2019

The Derry Girls are the new emblems of Northern Ireland

It's the only thing we'd all be talking about now - if it weren't for letter bombs, Bloody Sunday and Brexit.

Susan McKay, The Guardian, 6th March 2019

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