Michael Lennox’s strength is ensemble comedy, particularly his work with Lisa McGee. We like the company he keeps on screen, though the performers are more persuasive than some of the elaborate situations arranged for them.
Fi1m perspective
The dance scenes in How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026) offer a welcome rest from following the mystery. We relaxed during those passages because movement and performance were doing the entertaining without the strain of the more outlandish situations. Lennox directs the series alongside George Kane and Rachna Suri, so its pleasures cannot all be claimed for him. His handling of ensembles is worth watching, particularly when the story leaves the performers some room.
The route here runs through shorts including Boogaloo and Graham (2014). His first feature, A Patch of Fog (2015), was a psychological thriller. The turn towards sustained ensemble comedy came with Derry Girls (2018–2022), for which he directed all 19 episodes across three series. His subsequent work as lead director and executive producer on Say Nothing (2024) extends a television career that includes both comedy and drama.
McGee, the writer of Derry Girls and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, is the central collaborator in that comedy work. In the latter, the directors must make room for friendship while managing a rural Irish chase and the business of a mystery. The three convincing friends are the reason to follow it, and the welcome lack of dignity is part of the appeal. The dance scenes suggest that the programme could trust its performers a little more, rather than finding increasingly peculiar things for them to do.
Our reservation is that some of the silliness feels compulsory, and the wandering plot asks for patience it has not always earned. The series remains good company, but being lively is not enough to make every outlandish situation work. For Lennox, the promising direction is more confidence in performance and less insistence on keeping everything busy. Try How to Get to Heaven from Belfast for the friends, not for a tightly managed mystery.
Biography
Michael Lennox is a director, producer and cinematographer from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He holds an MA from the National Film and Television School and began making short films in 2008.
His short Boogaloo and Graham (2014) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and won a BAFTA for Best British Short Film. His debut feature, A Patch of Fog (2015), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. On television he directed all three series of the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls (2018–2022), for which he received a Royal Television Society award, as well as episodes of Endeavour (2017), Love, Victor (2020), Say Nothing (2024) and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026). He has also worked as executive producer on several series.
