Derry Girls is Back: Laughter Across the Barricades
Maisie Linford
Queen’s graduate Lisa McGee’s award winning comedy Derry Girls returned last night with the promise of another engaging and hilarious series set for success. Opening with familiar scenes of Derry during The Troubles; walls, flags, army trucks, Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) narrates a familiar tone of the hardship growing up in this part of the world. The scene switches from dove mural to her in a bubble bath. Self-satisfied but interrupted by Orla eating a poptart she shares “finally we were saying, let’s give peace a chance”. Pretending to be on Parkinson again, well Wogan actually. Brilliant.
This, and the close-up of Erin’s fabulously 90’s ‘Friends Across the Barricades’ T-shirt perfectly sets up the brassy coming-of-age period comedy to be as fresh as the last series. This time bringing the conflict to the forefront, but continuing to be unflinchingly Northern Irish and convivial. In Across the Barricades Erin and her friends go on a field trip to meet the local protestant boys, to build bridges, not real bridges of course “metaphorical ones”. McGee’s dry and cutting humour continues to push the boundaries of the normally accepted way of representing these political tensions, particularly pertinent today as we look onto the threats of Brexit and the disappearing middle ground. The period setting of The Troubles allows for a comic telling of reading history as it happens.
As with the last series key political moments are told in the background on the television, the perfectly ditsy Aunt Sarah (Kathy Kiera Clarke) explains the British government dubbed the voice of Gerry Adams because it’s too sexy, “his actual voice is very seductive, apparently he sounds like the West Belfast Bond”. Looking to seduce the protestant lads for cross-community relations the girls and James put together a gift bag including half a packet of Rolos and an Ulster Bank keyring. Their efforts are put to shame by Jenny Joyce (played as excellently snooty by Queen’s graduate Leah O'Rourke) who claims to have an advantage, not because she’s loaded but because she was able to get advice from a half-protestant friend on the kind of things “they like”- apparently giant keyboards.
The attempt to better understanding the other side involves partying, abseiling and a workshop facilitated the fabulously coiffed father Peter (Peter Champion) who after returning from his ‘sabbatical’ with the slutty hairdresser to help the groups recognise their similarities and mostly differences; from Catholics buzzing off statues, as confirmed by Sister Michael, who is back and full of attitude, to Protestants hating ABBA and keeping toasters in the cupboard, before eventually finding something. Whether this is true was certainly a conversation starter at Queen’s today as well as trending on Twitter, with Protestants unashamedly sharing their toaster storage spots.
The humour of Derry Girls throws caution to the wind and continues to be as outrageous and heart-warming as the last-series. The show reached a healthy 1.8 million linear viewers, with one in five viewers in Northern Ireland. An impressive start, exceeding last year’s ratings of 1.6 million, that rose to 2.5 million after the first weeks on-demand viewing, Channel 4’s highest comedy launch in over a decade and a desirable acquisition for Netflix.
The show is a testament toward regional programming that is often watered down to appeal to a broader audience by being unashamedly local and McGee is an inspiration to aspiring writers at Queen’s, whether they are Northern Irish, women or just funny that there is an appetite for well-written, political and comic television.
Cast: Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Louisa Harland, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Tara Lynne O'Neill, Tommy Tiernan, Ian McElhinney, Siobhan McSweeney
Creator: Lisa McGee
Director: Michael Lennox
Executive Producers: Lisa McGee, Caroline Leddy, Liz Lewin, Jimmy Mulville
Channel 4. 5th March 2019