When the sitcom Derry Girls began last year, there may have been a few viewers who were surprised at the idea of a sitcom about a group of teenage girls set against the backdrop of The Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1990s.
But the show’s writer and creator, Lisa McGee, believed it would strike a chord with audiences everywhere.
She said: “I suppose it’s my experience of growing up in the ’90s in Derry, pre-ceasefire.
“When I moved to London, it only slowly dawned on me that those circumstances were unusual.
“Then it occurred to me that that’s because teenagers everywhere are the same – no matter what is going on around them, there is a selfishness to being a teenager.
“There are things they all have in common – their families frustrate them, their friends embarrass them, the boy they like doesn’t know they exist – and I thought there was something nice about how universal that is.”
There are some new additions to the cast this series, including the star of one of Channel 4’s previous hits, Father Ted’s Ardal O’Hanlon, who plays Eamonn, a character described as the awkward, middle-aged mummy’s boy of the Quinn/McCool extended family
But the spotlight is still on the teens, as in the the first episode Erin (the marvellously expressive Saoirse-Monica Jackson) and the gang attend an outdoor pursuits weekend designed to bring Protestant and Catholic school kids together.
But what sort of pursuits does Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) have in mind when she discovers that there will be Protestant lads there?
And what will the scene-stealing Sister Michael (Siobhan McSweeney) make of it all?
Derry Girls, Channel 4, Tue, 9.15pm.
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