Sitting comfortably?
Good.
Then you’ll have no trouble at all whipping out the ol’ All4 app and switching on Derry Girls right this second.
Channel 4’s new comedy is about the trials and tribulations of a group of schoolgirls (and one “wee English fella”) in the early ’90s and it’s probably safe to say that it’s the greatest sitcom on TV at the moment.
Created by Lisa McGee, the show follows Erin Quinn, Michelle Mallon, Clare Devlin, Orla McCool, and James – a lad who’s come over from England after his mam decided she couldn’t be dealing with him anymore.
She also apparently tried to abort him but wasn’t allowed to for some reason.
The first episode of the show aired last Thursday and, understandably, it received a lot of praise online.
A mere 22 minutes long and it still managed to include a nun-related death, a bomb disposal, a hunger strike, somebody pissing in a bin and a lot of class accents.
Episode two also aired earlier on in the week and it was met with the same delight and praise.
And seeing as the latest episode was all about a class trip to Paris, it’s probably fair to say that most people could relate to the intensified excitement and questionable French accents that absolutely made a warranted appearance.
Unlike other sitcoms, Derry Girls isn’t swathed with sometimes crass, often laboured humour that we’ve come to accept from comedy shows in recent years.
The jokes are fast but not easily forgotten and despite being clearly Derry-specific, the humour definitely isn’t lost on non-natives of the county.
As long as you have an ear for their accents, that is.
Actress Jamie-Lee O’Donnell has said that she’s delighted to be a part of the show that’s putting Derry “on the map.”
She told the Belfast Telegraph that the programme is giving viewers a fairly accurate representation of what it was like to live your life during an era most commonly associated with violence and fear.
“It’s about showing that people in Derry got on with their lives during a really hard time, when the Troubles were still here.
“I don’t have memories of that time, but my parents were obviously around during the Troubles, and lots of members of my family, and they tell me that that’s what it was like.
“They didn’t let bomb scares stop them from living.”
Derry Girls continues this Thursday on Channel 4 at 10pm.
The first two epidoes are now streaming on All4.
