All The Derry Best

GIRLS’

ADVENTURE

OWN

It’s “90% chaos, 10% personal development” as Erin, Orla, Michelle, Clare and James return in the third and final series of Derry Girls. Stuart Clark gets all the latest Our Lady Immaculate College gossip, and hangs out in her hometown with show creator Lisa McGee.

STILL COURTESY OF CHANNEL 4 TELEVISION

Derry Girl creator Lisa McGee’s head is spinning like it’s never spun before trying to process all the extraordinary things that have happened to her these past few weeks. First off, there was the “Is this really happening?” triple-whammy of Lisa nearly falling off the sofa in shock when The Simpsons paid its ‘Dairy Girls’ tribute to the series; the bestowal of an honorary doctorate on McGee by Ulster University; and receiving the phone call, which confirmed that her beloved Smash Hits was coming back from the dead for one issue just so they can stick Erin, Orla, Michelle, Clare and James on the cover.

On top of that, Lisa is back in her hometown today for the Irish premiere of Derry Girls’ third and, sob, final series in the Omniplex down the road from the extremely plush Guildhall where we’re currently having a cuppa together.

“Out of everything that’s happened, The Simpsons is the one that completely floored me,” she reflects. “I read about it on a Simpsons fan page I follow and thought, ‘That can’t be right. They must be referring to something else.’ I just kept staring at it and staring at it and staring at it because I was such a huge fan of the show in the ‘90s. It was only when their Executive Producer said, ‘Yes, it’s a Derry Girls reference’ that I let myself believe it. Then some of the writers, who I really admire, got in touch with me saying they were fans. I was like, ‘How are they even understanding it?’

“Another thing that blew my mind was the Derry Girls mural going up on the side of Badgers Bar on Orchard Street. It’s become a full-blown tourist attraction, which is nuts too. Then there’s the special edition of Smash Hits, which was the highlight of my week when I was a kid. It’s been one surreal moment after another.”

The first Smash Hits in sixteen years doesn’t disappoint with

Granda Joe reviewing the singles (Steps’ ‘Last Thing On My Mind’ gets 2 cream horns out of 5); Sister Michael turning Agony Aunt (“I don’t know, don’t care and can’t be bothered to try and find out,” she tells in-need-of-advice Five fan Colleen); and Erin rocking some serious double denim à la B*Witched (the lyrics to ‘C’est

La Vie’ are included).

SPOILER ALERT!!!

In a rare case of things not leaking out beforehand on the ‘net, the Series Three opener includes a surprise guest turn from Liam Neeson as the Garda Inspector who interviews the girls when they unwittingly get involved with the nocturnal robbing of computers from Our Lady Immaculate College.

They need an adult to be with them because they’re minors and come up with the genius idea of nominating Uncle Colm who bores Inspector Neeson into releasing them without charge.

Asked how they managed to keep the Ballymena superstar’s participation under wraps, Lisa smiles and says, “It’s not a very good code name but we called him ‘The Big Fella’ for ages. You’re so terrified of letting things slip that you’re in a state of stress all

A WALK ON THE BOGSIDE: Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee and scenes from the final season

“Thegirlsfind themselvesin crazysituations they’venever beeninbefore.”

the time. It’s such a relief when it goes out because you’re like, ‘Thank god, I can talk about it now!

“We were on this call and Liam said that Helen Mirren had introduced him to the show, which was pretty mind-blowing. Our producer Brian Falconer, who’d made a film with him, wormed his way in, went through all the ranks and amazingly made it happen. It was really, really scary working with Liam but he was lovely.”

THE KIDS GROW UP, BUT ONLY A WEE BIT!

As for the broader Series Three plot, Lisa describes it as “90% chaos, 10% personal development.” “The kids grow up… but only a wee, wee bit!” she laughs. “They still get into a lot of scrapes like you’ll see in those first two episodes. They are faced with something really serious, and it’s the first time they don’t have the same view. They have to work out what that means for them as a group of friends. They kind of fall out but they’re mostly still idiots and not enlightened people by the end of it.” Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (Michelle Mallon) agrees with Lisa’s summation.

“The third series is like Series One and Two x 1,000,” she enthuses. “We’ve completely outdone ourselves. Each episode is like a wee mini-movie, there’s just so much packed into each one. The girls find themselves in crazy situations they’ve never been in before.

“I think people love it because it’s so relatable. All over the world, if you change the accents, the relationships are still very similar.”

Clashing schedules almost lead to Nicola Coughlan (wee Clare Devlin) having to be written out of the series, but thanks to a mad dash from the Bridgerton set to Derry major script surgery was avoided. “Clare’s still a nervous wreck,” Coughlan tells us. “I’d forgotten how exhausting it was to play her because it requires so much pent-up energy. She’s taking life seriously, just as she always has. There’s a big storyline for her this time that I can’t talk about, but Lisa called me a couple of years ago to make sure I was comfortable with it.”

THEY NEVER STOP TO THINK

Coughlan isn’t the only Derry Girl who’s spring-boarded from the Bogside to other meaty roles with Saoirse-Monica Jackson lining up alongside Ezra Miller and Ben Affleck in imminent DC movie The Flash; Jamie-Lee O’Donnell playing one of the prison officers in ITV drama Screws; Louisa Harland (Orla McCool) following up her appearance in The Deceived with a big, soon-to-be-announced project; and David Llewellyn (James Maguire) cast as fired band member Wally Nightingale in Danny Boyle’s Pistol bio-series.

“To do comedy well your timing has to be spot on, so I’m not surprised they’re now getting these major dramatic roles,” Lisa ventures. “It’s been amazing recently going into newsagents and seeing Nicola’s face on the cover of everything. We were incredibly fortunate to get the five of them. They’re all super-talented and will go on to do increasingly big things.”

To be a great writer you have to be invested in your characters, but I’ve never met anyone who’s as adoring of theirs as Lisa McGee is.

“The girls are just go, go, go – they never stop to think, which is great because if they did the episode couldn’t happen. The family, we’ve come to realise are just as mad. I love Grandpa Joe and Gerry now: their relationship and the wee adventures they go

on are just so funny. The two sisters, Mary and Sarah, are incredible too and always have their own things going on. I was thinking they should run their own detective agency and solve crimes. Perhaps that’ll happen one day in the Derry Girls Universe!”

Asked who her favourite Derry girl is later on at the after-show party by Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Lisa gives the same surprise answer as she gave me – Jenny Joyce.

“I always describe Jenny as being in a different show like Beverly Hills, 90210 or something. I use American-isms when she talks so it’s, ‘Folks and guys.’ Leah, who plays her, has started giving her a wee bit more of an American twang as well. She thinks that she’s the Prom Queen. I love her because she can inject a different energy into the show. It’s all very Derry, Derry, Derry and then she comes in and says, ‘Howdie, folks!’ They all hate her, which injects this tension into the school scenes that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Jenny’s an absolutely brilliant character to write.”

OUT WITH A BANG, NOT A WIMPLE

The ultimate Derry Girls episode-stealer, though, has to be Siobhán McSweeney as the force of ecclesiastical nature that is Sister Michael.

“God, she’s got some very funny bits in this series as does Peter Campion, AKA Father Peter who forces a friendship on Sister Michael whose eye-rolling and looking up to heaven reaches new levels,” Lisa divulges.

It’s all very different in real life with McSweeney saying that, “Any scene with Peter Campion is to be cherished. Just one look at him with his lovely hair! They’re my favourite scenes actually, and always have been – although don’t tell him that!” The Great Pottery Throw Down host is equally gushing about her own character.

“Oh, she’s wonderful,” Siobhán continues. “What I love about Sister Michael is that she has a life outside of being a nun. She has an awareness of the whole world. She’s not closeted away and she’s not ignorant. You could argue that she’s the only one with a proper handle on things. She observes the world with a cynical eye rather than getting too wrapped up in things. She’s the sort of a woman I’d really love to go for a pint with.”

Lisa had always planned on Derry Girls ending after the three series with the April 10, 1998 signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which she has bittersweet memories of. “I didn’t vote in the Good Friday Referendum because I was a wee bit too small and still in school, which became a major bone of contention when pupils were being chosen to go to the peace concert in Belfast that Ash, Bono, John Hume and David Trimble were at, and it was all the Jenny Joyces that got picked,” she rues. “I’m over it now… no, I’m not! One of my friends who went to a different school got chosen, and hasn’t shut up about it since.

“The show’s about teenagers, which is quite a brief period in your life and goes like a flash, so I wanted the Derry Girls ending to feel quite final,” Lisa concludes. “The Good Friday Agreement is kind of the day this place grew up, which parallels these kids growing up. It felt like the two things wrapped round each other quite well. It’s the favourite thing of mine I’ve ever written, and I hope people like it as much as I do when it comes out.”

“Theshow’sabout teenagers,which isquiteabrief periodinyourlife andgoeslikea flash,soIwanted the endingtofeel final.”