Following the release of The Derry Girls season 3 in the US earlier this month, fans have been scrambling to put the showdown as there will unfortunately not be a fourth season.
Last season was full of surprises and ended with guest appearances from Liam Neeson and Chelsea Clinton. . But despite all that, it’s still tragic that viewers will no longer see the faces of Claire, Erin, Orla, Michelle, and James on their TV screens. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, creator Lisa McGee described how sad she was to say goodbye to the series because she was “connected to these characters in a way that I don’t think is entirely healthy.”.
But how connected was the Creator? Although she grew up during this period, the characters are fictional. Still, it’s worth noting that McGee was inspired by her own life. Read more to find out what’s true and what’s not.
Derry Girls Events:
Derry Girls is set in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles, a decades-long conflict in which Protestants wanted Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom, while Catholics wanted a united Ireland. The show and the conflict end around the time of the Good Friday Agreement, which took place in the late 1990s. It was a real conflict, and McGee survived it.
McGee was initially reluctant to write a story about his life but eventually relented after speaking with his executive producer. Some of the stories are based on her own life, as McGee actually attended an all-girls Catholic school. And just like the main character Erin, McGee wanted to be a writer. She described how “ridiculous” her circle of friends is and how boring it is to live with problems, which definitely made it into the TV show.
One such ridiculous story that happened to McGee was when she and her friends skipped class to go to a concert and got caught when a picture of one of the band members was taken and put on the front page of the newspaper.
“I will never forget this story because my friend was so delighted with this photo compared to the trouble she got into. It was the perfect contrast,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. This is the mood of the Derry girls; the thrill of growth and adventure as opposed to the trials and tribulations of the event itself.
In another New York Times story, McGee mentions that he actually wrote a letter to Chelsea Clinton at the age of 13, although he never received a reply. Not only was it written into the script when the group of friends eventually wrote First Daughter, but Clinton had a cameo appearance. There are two sides to every coin, and McGee’s side was full of fun amid the ups and downs of The Troubles.
Derry girls characters:
As mentioned earlier, McGee based much of the show on true stories about herself and the people she grew up with. In an interview with iNews, he described what it was like to write the character of Erin, who was based on her. “She’s a dreamer, I was a dreamer. She lived in my own little bubble. That ambition that she should be a writer without actually doing the graft, I definitely thought it was going to happen to me,” she said.
Other characters are also based on real people. In an interview with British Comedy Guide, Nicola Coughlan said that she had met the real person on whom she based her character of Claire.
Besides Claire, Uncle Colm is another character inspired by a real person. Asked about it in an NPR interview, McGee said, “It seems like a lot of people, a lot of Irish people, I know, we seem to have this guy in our family, and they usually want to talk about him.”
Now it seems the characters have their own legacy, with a mural of them in the town of Londonderry seen by McGee when he visits his home. Although he can’t travel to Derry to see it, he can always re-watch the show, which is available to stream on Netflix or Channel 4.
Source: vibes365gh.com
