Trivia / Derry Girls

• Acting in the Dark: Only Nicola Coughlan knew that Clare was a lesbian before her coming-out episode was shot.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Louisa Harland came up with Orla's "Like a Prayer" step aerobics routine herself.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Both Saoirse Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell are from Derry, like their characters.
  • Clare is portrayed as a Soapbox Sadie and supporting various causes. Her actress Nicola Coughlan is also known for her political activism.
• As Himself: Bronagh Gallagher appears as herself (or as the gang keeps referring to her, "The Commitment") in the programme's finale. She is originally slated to sing at Jenny Joyce's party, but end up doing Erin and Orla's instead.
• Billing Displacement: Louisa Harland, who was the most notable of the young actors (she had starred in Love/Hate), is billed first in the Season 1 credits — despite Erin being the clear protagonist.
• California Doubling: Although set in Derry, the majority of the series is filmed in Belfast (70 miles away if you're curious).
• Career Resurrection: Provided one for Lisa McGee, who hadn't had a hit show on the air since Raw ended in 2013.
• Dawson Casting: Done with nearly all the teenage characters. Most notably, Clare's actress Nicola Coughlan was thirty during the filming of the first season, and thirty-four during the filming of the final season. Not that you'd ever guess by looking at her. In an inside joke, in the episode when the Derry Girls make the mistake of bullying a lower former related to the Brawn Hilda, said lower former is played by an actual teenage girl.
• Dueling Works: With The Young Offenders, an Irish sitcom about teenagers in Cork. Fans are calling for a crossover. (Though it might be a bit difficult as this series is set in 1994 and Young Offenders more than a decade later.)
• Enforced Method Acting: The five actors all lived in an apartment together while filming the first season to properly build up chemistry together.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Nicola Coughlan (Clare) is originally from Galway. In an interview with Graham Norton, she learned the Derry accent from watching Nadine Coyle's disastrous tenure on Popstars: Ireland.
  • Louisa Harland (Orla) is from Dublin.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Michelle is a Hard-Drinking Party Girl with a never-ending series of quips out of her mouth. Jamie Lee O'Donnell says she's The Quiet One.
  Jamie Lee O'Donnell: I think people are shocked that I'm a lot quieter than they thought. They think I'm going to be this really boisterous and wild person but I'm not really.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Joe is an Irish Nationalist while his actor Ian McElhinney, comes from a Northern Irish Unionist background. So it can be very funny seeing Ian as Joe shouting insults to the Orange Order marchers.
  • Liam Neeson appears in Season 3 as a RUC police chief that the main characters believe is profiling them because of their Catholic backgrounds. Neeson himself is from Northern Ireland's Catholic community and has spoken about the struggles he faced growing up in a predominantly Protestant town.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Dylan Llewellyn admits to sometimes not knowing what the Derry cast members are saying, adding to James's feeling of being out of place.
  • The final episode's focus on the Good Friday Agreement and the idea of a peaceful future for Northern Ireland hit even harder when, the very same month the episode aired, the DUP^note the only major party that opposed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 refused to enter Stormont as the second-largest party, leaving the North without a government once again.
• Real-Life Relative: Lisa McGee's husband Tobias Beer plays Richard Joyce (Janette Joyce, formerly O'Shea's husband and Jenny's father).
• The Red Stapler: Derry City became a popular tourist location after the series aired.
• Shipper on Set: Nicola Coughlan enthusiastically ships Erin and James.
• Sleeper Hit: After the first episode had aired, the ratings were so high that a second season was picked up almost immediately. And a third series was confirmed right after the final episode of the second season aired.
• Star-Making Role: Nicola Coughlan won rave notices for her portrayal of Clare, which led to her being cast in Bridgerton where she received even more raves, and then got to also be part of the juggernaut Barbie (2023). Unfortunately for Derry Girls, this meant she was in such demand that she had a reduced role in Series 3 because she became so busy.
• What Could Have Been: Lisa McGee initially didn't want there to be any references to The Troubles, but was eventually persuaded to have some in the series.
• Word of God: Lisa McGee confirmed Erin, Orla, Clare, James and Michelle's middle names as Josephine, Josephine, Clare, Z and Louise Patricia Pio.
  • After the finale, she also confirmed that Erin and James eventually got together.
• Write What You Know: Lisa McGee based the school on Thornhill College in Derry, which she attended in her youth. The casual attitude of the adults towards the bomb threats were true to her own experiences as well.
  Lisa McGee: I know bomb scares were so frequent they became mundane. I know people complained about not being able to get to the shop. That was my experience, which I'm telling through a 16-year-old's eyes.

---