Derry Girls S2

The Troubles, or the Northern Ireland Conflict, took place during the late 20th Century, from the 1960s until the 1990s, and it’s against this serious backdrop we follow the everyday lives of a group of teenagers and their families in this critically acclaimed series – the most-watched in Northern Ireland since such things began being monitored in 2002.

Una Mullally of The Irish Times summed it up: “The writing in Derry Girls is sublime, the performances perfect, the casting is brilliant.”

Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), their friends Clare (Nicola Coughlan) and Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), and Michelle’s English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) are the Derry Girls (yes, James too; he is repeatedly mistaken for a butch girl).

Their adolescent blundering, ill thought-out escapades, mishaps and consequences are the meat of the show, with the adults of their lives adding the gravy. Like Erin’s Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney) who always and forever blames her long-suffering Da (Gerry, played by Tommy Tiernan) for everything. Every. Single Thing.

These things we would call “running gags” makes them sound as if they are heavy-handed, but they are not. In fact, they get funnier and funnier.

Throw in a fab 1990s soundtrack of more than 130 songs (available on Spotify), including the relevantly anthemic Zombie by The Cranberries, and you have masterful television craic.