Lisa McGee, whose telly hit about a group of schoolgirls from Derry is beloved by everyone from The Obamas to Martin Scorcese, takes us behind-the-scenes of her new Netflix show
Lisa McGee has a touch of the jitters about the follow-up to her global hit Derry Girls dropping on Netflix – but admits, it’s high time fans see it.
Derry Girls, about the adventures of a group of Derry schoolgirls, boasted fans from the Obamas to Martin Scorsese – and Lisa, 45, admits her dark new comedy thriller, How To Get To Belfast from Derry, has big boots to fill.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror at the Belfast premiere, she says: “I’m really nervous – but I know it has to happen. You can only ‘tweak’ for so long before it has to go out in the world!”
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Sharp, sweet and full of stunning landscapes and dark Northern Irish humour, Lisa describes the show, which stars Unforgotten’s Sinéad Keenan, as a “comedy, mystery mash-up about three friends in their late 30s who find out that an old pal from childhood has died.”
Derry-born Lisa, who moved after many years from London to Belfast, where she studied film, during the pandemic, adds, “They decide to go to her wake – but they get pulled into a weird series of events, which takes them all over Ireland and beyond. They try to find out what actually happened with their friend and who she really was, I guess.’
The inspiration for her latest opus, she says, came from a trip back to her old high school, in Derry. “I’d heard it had become a location for ghost hunters, as they’d built a new school across the road. I went to have a look and there were still scarves hanging up, writing on the blackboard, weeds growing over stuff. It was so scary.
“I was walking down to where the old canteen would have been, and I just thought, I’m going to bump into myself as a teenager here! That thought stayed with me (then, because it was in a convent, a nun came out and chased me off the premises – like the good old days!)”.
As for what her teen self would think of her now, she admits, “I always wanted to be a writer, so she’d be delighted I’m doing that. I also think she’d reckon I’ve embarrassed myself a fair bit along the way. But mostly, she’d be happy.”
The ‘coffin-side’ humour that people adored in Derry Girls is very much apparent here, too – and Lisa believes it’s entwined with her country’s turbulent history.
“We used very dark humour as a coping mechanism, we got really good at it and we just kept doing it. I remember being abroad with friends, and people’s jaws would be on the floor when they heard us chatting. I’d be thinking, that’s not even dark to me!
And the screenwriter hopes she’s brought a more human element to depictions of the Troubles. “That’s the part when I was watching anything about where I came from that got lost. The ordinary people, trying to get their kids to school, or have a night out.
“The past’s still there, they still talk and joke about it, but there are other, new stories now. I’m very interested in that – and putting women at the centre, so you’re seeing things through a slightly different lens.”
Lisa admits she is fascinated by female friendships, and it’s something she’s naturally drawn to in her writing. “I always had brilliant, strong female friends, a lot of women in my family who were very funny and forthright – but you didn’t see it very often on-screen.
“I always wanted to see my friends represented. They’re the funniest people, and they make the worst decisions sometimes. They’re flawed – and that’s the more interesting stuff, that’s where the stories are. So, I wanted to put them bang at the centre of a mystery.
One brilliant cameo is Father Ted’s Ardal O’Hanlon as a quirky hotel owner complete with light-up neon dickie-bow – and Lisa loved working with him.
“He’s so funny. Ardal agreed to do a few scenes, but he was so good we kept trying to find ways to bring him back. He had to go on a stand-up tour and was going, ‘Lisa I really have to leave now!” I was like, “But what if your character does this, in just one more scene…”
Another male star the mum-of-two has worked with was Hamnet heartthrob Paul Mescal in TV thriller The Deceived in 2020, but she was “way too pregnant” at the time to go on set at the time and meet him.
“I wrote that show with my husband… so he got to do all that, sadly. Then Paul went away and became the biggest star in the world. Look at Nicola {Coughlan], too. I can’t keep up with them all!”
As for the legacy of Derry Girls, Lisa admits she’s only every thankful for the impact it made. “I waited so long to be able to write about the place I come from. I still can’t believe I was able to write about my life in that way.
“And people’s response, across the world, is incredible. Younger people are finding it now. I love comedy because you watch a show again and again and those characters become part of the family. You’d need to tell me to stop talking about it first, I think!
The Mirror attended the premiere of How to Get To Heaven From Belfast in conjunction with Tourism NI. The show is streaming on Netflix from 12 February.
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