--- title: "Derry Girls" year: 2018 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/derry-girls" fi1m_score: 83 critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T14:57:54.648617+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T14:57:55.784405+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Derry Girls (2018) Created by Lisa McGee · 23m · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 83** · Critics 84 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* A bomb closes the bridge and the real problem is that it makes them late for school > Lisa McGee’s sitcom puts five teenagers in 1990s Derry and treats the Troubles as a nuisance rather than a subject, which turns out to be the truest way of showing them. Fast, foul-mouthed and beautifully acted; only the plotting repeats itself. ## Synopsis Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 1990s, with soldiers searching the school bus and a bomb closing the bridge on the first day of term. Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) wants to be a writer and to be taken seriously, and gets neither from her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), who reads her diary, nor from her friends Clare (Nicola Coughlan) and Michelle (Jamie Lee O’Donnell). Michelle’s English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) is sent to their Catholic girls’ school because the boys’ school is judged unsafe for him. At home Erin shares a small house with Ma Mary (Tara Lynne O’Neill), Da Gerry (Tommy Tiernan), Aunt Sarah (Kathy Kiera Clarke) and Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney). At school, Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney) is waiting. ## Review Lisa McGee has written a sitcom about five teenagers in Derry in the 1990s, and she has decided that the armed conflict outside their windows is the least interesting thing in their lives. Soldiers search the school bus; the girls are worried about whether one of them has got off with a boy. A bomb closes the bridge; the crisis is that it makes them late. *Derry Girls* is fast, filthy and, across three short series, more serious than it lets on. We recommend it warmly, with a caveat about how the plots are built. Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) is the lead and the least self-aware person on screen. She wants to be a writer, keeps a diary, and believes herself the sensitive one in a family that does not agree. Jackson plays her with a face that does most of the work: the mouth goes one way, the eyebrows another, and the whole performance is a running argument between what Erin thinks she looks like and what she does. Her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland) is on another frequency altogether, doing step aerobics and saying the one true thing anyone has said all day, by accident. Nicola Coughlan’s Clare is the conscience, which in this group means she is the first to panic and the first to confess. Jamie Lee O’Donnell’s Michelle swears the most, plans everything and takes none of the blame. And Michelle’s English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn) has been put in a girls’ school for his own safety, where he is the only sensible person present and is punished for it in every episode. The adults are as good, and they have less time to be. Ian McElhinney’s Granda Joe conducts a decades-long campaign against his son-in-law Gerry (Tommy Tiernan), who has done nothing to deserve it and knows it will never end. Tara Lynne O’Neill’s Ma Mary runs the house on threats. Kathy Kiera Clarke’s Aunt Sarah is vain, vague and never wrong by her own account. Above them all sits Siobhán McSweeney’s Sister Michael, the headmistress, who gets the biggest laughs of the series by moving the fewest muscles. She looks at the girls as one might look at weather. Michael Lennox directs at a pace that leaves no room for the camera to admire anything. The town is there in glimpses: a mural on a gable end, a soldier’s rifle at the window of the bus, the green blazers of a Catholic girls’ school moving in a pack. Nineties songs turn up in nearly every episode and do the work a score would, and the theme, The Cranberries’ *Dreams*, sets the mood before anyone has spoken. Twenty-three minutes is not long, and McGee fills each one so tightly that we frequently missed a line because we were still laughing at the one before. Then, at the end of the first series, the show does something we were not braced for, and we will not describe it. It caught us out. We had laughed for six episodes at a family who treat checkpoints as a nuisance, and in a couple of minutes McGee made us look at every one of those jokes again. The third series, which arrived in 2022 after a three-year wait, is bolder about letting the history in, and it has earned the right. The caveat is the machinery. Almost every episode runs on the same engine: Michelle has a plan, Clare has a fit, it goes wrong, and everyone ends up in Sister Michael’s office. It is a good engine, but by the third series you can hear it turning over. Leah O’Rourke’s Jenny Joyce, the prefect, is a useful irritant and never quite a person. The final run of seven episodes is looser than the first two, with more room for guests and for the sentiment McGee had kept under the floorboards. And the 15 certificate is honest; the language would strip paint. Set against its neighbours, it is quicker than [*The Inbetweeners*](https://film.one/tv/the-inbetweeners), which it has been compared to since it first aired on 4 January 2018, and it is kinder. It has some of *Father Ted*’s taste for clergy and chaos, and a warmer view of the people it is laughing at. Watch it with the subtitles on, if the accent defeats you at first. Then turn them off, because the speed is the point. *Fi1m score 83, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the show's wicked sense of humour, pitch-perfect 90s nostalgia, and the brilliant ensemble cast of teenage girls whose antics are reckless, joyful and celebratory. The fast-paced jokes and authentic portrayal of teenage life stand out. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/19/derry-girls-channel-4-the-funniest-thing-on-tv-lisa-mcgee) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Robyn Bahr (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it their favorite comedy of the year, praising its raucous humor, foul-mouthed characters, and how it upends the 'poor Irish childhood' genre with charm and irreverence while highlighting the writing, cast and direction by Michael Lennox. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/derry-girls-1171358/) - **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Derry Girls fantastically funny teen TV that is obsessively rooted in its specific time and place in 1990s Northern Ireland. They single out the show's deep sympathy and generosity toward its flawed, absurd characters for praise. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/derry-girls-season-2-review-netflix.html) - **Radio Times**, Sarah Doran (80/100, inferred): The critic finds it laugh-out-loud funny black comedy with brilliant one-liners, 90s nostalgia, and a cracking cast; singles out its fresh perspective on life during the Troubles. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/derry-girls-is-the-comedy-you-need-to-beat-the-january-blues/) - **The i Paper**, Finlay Greig (75/100, inferred): The critic sees it as a winning coming-of-age comedy echoing The Inbetweeners but distinguished by its Troubles-era Derry setting, with strong performances especially from Saoirse Jackson as Erin. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/derry-girls-review-115045) - **The Times** (★★★☆☆): The review notes that the episode is slightly less funny than previous ones but remains whip-smart, cheerfully uplifting, and full of one-liners, with writer Lisa McGee targeting religion, politics and sex for dark laughs. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-a-house-through-time-derrygirls-0dvnknzvk) - **NME**, El Hunt (5/5): The critic praises the show's sharp writing that balances slapstick comedy with its serious backdrop of the Troubles. They single out the finale's mix of personal drama and larger historical events for particular note. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/tv-reviews/derry-girls-season-3-review-channel-4-3202429) ## Details - **Created by:** Lisa McGee - **Creator:** Lisa McGee - **Director:** Michael Lennox - **Writer:** Lisa McGee - **Cast:** Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin Quinn; Louisa Harland as Orla McCool; Nicola Coughlan as Clare Devlin; Jamie Lee O'Donnell as Michelle Mallon; Dylan Llewellyn as James Maguire; Tara Lynne O'Neill as Ma Mary Quinn; Tommy Tiernan as Da Gerry Quinn; Kathy Kiera Clarke as Aunt Sarah - **Runtime:** 23m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 4 January 2018 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFmFuXH0IRY ## Where to watch in the US - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Father Ted* (1995): Three priests, one island, and the same gift for making chaos out of Catholicism - *The Inbetweeners* (2008), Fi1m 84: Crueller and cruder, and just as certain that school is a battlefield — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-inbetweeners.md) - *Sing Street* (2016): Dublin, the eighties, a band formed to impress a girl; the songs carry it - *Freaks and Geeks* (1999), Fi1m 88: American teenagers, one year of school, and the same refusal to make anyone the joke — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/freaks-and-geeks.md) - *Reservation Dogs* (2021), Fi1m 86: Four kids on an Oklahoma reservation, funny about a place outsiders only find sad — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/reservation-dogs.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/derry-girls