New Irish Sitcom Has Been Tipped To Follow In The Footsteps Of Father Ted And Other Channel 4 Hits

There’s a new Irish television series starting on Thursday, 4th January on Channel 4 at 10pm and it has the hard task of trying to live up to the likes of ‘Father Ted’ and ‘The Inbetweeners’.

‘Derry Girls’ is set against the backdrop of The Troubles and shows viewers just what life was like in Derry in the early 90s. 

The sitcom is already being hyped up to be one of Channel 4’s biggest hits.

Lisa McGee – the person behind the show – based the six episode series on her own personal experiences in the 1990s. 

The Irish Independent said about the series that: “While it’s a time of armed police and check points, it is also, for the local teens, a time of Murder She Wrote, The Cranberries, MJ and Lisa Marie, Doc Martens, bomber jackets, The X Files, Nirvana and Wayne’s World.

There’s a lot of Derry lingo in it (which no doubt, we’re all going to steal and use as our own in weeks to come) and according to this review tackles the big questions such as: “should a teenage girl fancy a Brit soldier? Are five bags of chips too many for one (very extended) family to consume on a Friday night? How does Ian Paisley still manage to make himself heard when the TV is on mute?”

The opening scene of the trailer sees the four girls sitting outside the principal’s office contemplating the possibility of getting expelled before joking that another girl in the school has never been expelled “and she’s in the IRA.”

“That’s probably why,” is the reply.

As you can imagine the soundtrack is going to be amazing and sure doesn’t it even feature Tommy Tiernan.

The first episode proved to be so successful and well-loved with audiences around the country that Channel 4 have commissioned a SECOND series already for Derry Girls. 

The first episode of Derry Girls has so far part-consolidated at a brilliant 2.5m viewers, with a 13.5% share of audience and more than double the slot average of 16-34 year old viewers. This makes it Channel 4’s biggest comedy series launch in almost 5 years.

Ian Katz, Director of Programmes at Channel 4, said: “Derry Girls is a blast of fresh air. It’s everything we want from Channel 4 comedy: young, warm, brimming with new talent and rooted in an underrepresented part of the country. And a hit to boot. I’m delighted that we’ve commissioned a second series and can’t wait to see what Lisa does next.”

Will you be sitting down tonight or pressing record to watch this?

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