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derry girls

Tommy Tiernan is the star of a new Channel 4 sitcom set during the Troubles

Derry Girls will tell the story of an ordinary family living in the North in 1994.

TODAY, CHANNEL 4 announced the casting for Derry Girls, a new family comedy “set against the spectre of the Troubles”.

The show is currently filming on location in Northern Ireland – here’s everything we know about it so far.

A comedy show about the Troubles?

DC1-7hGWAAALIDa Twitter / Channel 4 Twitter / Channel 4 / Channel 4

Well, a period comedy about a Northern Irish family set during the Troubles.

The unsettled times are seen through the eyes of the titular ‘Girls’, who are sometimes more preoccupied with boys and school to mind the British Army check points.

Sixteen-year-old Erin Quinn is the protagonist, along with her quirky family – here’s the blurb:

Terrible with boys and convinced nobody understands her, Erin would love to be a rebel and sometimes flirts with the idea of standing up to those in authority, but she never quite has the nerve. She has grand ambitions to become a famous writer and thinks of herself as thoroughly liberal and worldly, yet she’s never ventured further than Buncrana…

Who all is in it?

90136581_90136581 Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Tommy Tiernan is the most recognisable name in the cast, playing Erin’s “long-suffering” father – Tara Lynne-O’Neill, veteran of Fair City, EastEnders, and The Fall, plays his TV wife.

Game of Thrones fans will be delighted to see Ian McElhenney (AKA Ser Barristan) play Erin’s curmudgeonly Granda Joe.

CS 71 1st November 2010 Throneslife Throneslife

Who wrote it?

 

The show was conceived and written by Lisa McGee, who previously dreamed up the restaurant drama RAW for RTÉ.

Lisa is a Derry Girl herself, and says she’s delighted to be able to tell the stories of “real people” living through the Troubles:

Now, with the delicate political ecosystem of the country about to be tested by The Conservatives and the DUP, it seems well worth reminding ourselves of how things were not so long ago… What better way to do that than through comedy?

The show is currently filming in Belfast and Derry (here are pictures of them staging an Orange Order march) so we’ll have to wait a while to see for ourselves. And who knows what the DUP will be up to by then?

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