Derry Girls penned by London Irish's Lisa McGee

The Northern Irish Troubles are to form the backdrop of a new Channel 4 comedy.

Writer Lisa McGee – the creator of previous Channel 4 comedy London Irish – is penning a new sitcom called Derry Girls, based on her upbringing in the county in the Nineties.

Channel 4 say she has ‘mined her own experiences to create a candid, one-of-a kind comedy about what it’s like to be a teenage girl living amongst conflict’.

McGee said: ‘Anything set during the Troubles tends to be a bit grim and bleak, but that just wasn't my experience of Derry as a child and a teenager, it was a joyful place.  I'd like to celebrate that.

‘It was also hugely matriarchal, so I was keen we have a large and varied cast of female characters. There were other things going on in Northern Ireland at that time, there were other stories, I'm excited to have the opportunity to tell some of them.’

The central character is 16-year-old Erin, obsessing about a boy who doesn’t know she exists, and who is forced to hang out with her weirdo cousin. She also worried that her head of English Sister Michael refuses to acknowledge her as a literary genius, and that she’s being bullied by an 11-year-old girl.

Nerys Evans, Channel 4’s deputy head of comedy, commissioned the series. She said: ‘Derry Girls may have a unique setting but it’s a really warm family sitcom, seen through the eyes of teenager Erin. Lisa's writing is truthful, brave and laugh-out-loud funny.’

Published: 24 Aug 2016