Cameras roll as Derry Girls come home
Writer tells of delight as TV hit is filmed in heart of city
THE cast of hit TV show Derry Girls yesterday arrived in the city to start filming their much-anticipated second series.
Crews from the Channel 4 comedy that depicts the lives of a group of teenagers growing up in the 1990s amid the Troubles moved into the Bogside on Tuesday night to transform a corner shop into a set.
US flags were hung across the front of the shop alongside hula hoops, a shop dummy and some tricolours.
Yesterday morning the five main cast members — Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Nicola Coughlan, Dylan Llewellyn and Louisa Harland — all dressed in their now trademark school uniforms shot a scene with a woman in an oldstyle Opel Astra car.
Crews then moved filming to the steep Limewood Street, a row of terraced houses near Derry City’s Brandywell stadium, where the characters donned rucksacks and carried camping equipment. Residents had been asked to move their cars out of sight for the day as filming got under way. The area around Free Derry Corner was also adorned with Christmas garlands and wreaths for another scene.
Last week show bosses faced opposition from city centre traders
Louisa Harland, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell and Dylan Llewellyn filming Derry Girls yesterday
after they asked for council permission to shut down some roads.
A temporary road closure will be in place today and tomorrow in Shipquay Street and Shipquay Place, one of the main thoroughfares.
Eight traders from the Shipquay Street and Shipquay Place area signed a letter stating their concerns to the council, but it approved the closures and filming will take place as planned.
Series writer Lisa McGee
(left),
who is from the city, said she was delighted to be bringing Derry Girls home again.
“It’s amazing to be back in Derry,” she said.
“It’s the bit we have all been really excited about, and just the atmosphere last night coming driving up here. This is where we’ve saved our big scenes for. It’s dead exciting.”
She said that series two will navigate the period up until the IRA ceasefire in 1994.
“In terms of the gang, they are still the same,” she added.
“They still get into the same trouble. They don’t really achieve much, they are still disasters. In terms of the series arc, it is taking us up to the early stages of the peace process and the ceasefire.
So it’s a bit more hopeful. They are hopeful times.”
Reacting to criticism of the road closures, she said: “It was really important to me that we filmed here and we brought the show back here. Of course I understand concerns but we are going to be very careful to make sure that no one is affected by this. There are loads of us who have come here and I think there is going to be more trade over these next few days. But for the most part, everyone has been so supportive and excited about us coming, which we are delighted about.”
The date for the release of the
❝ It’s amazing to be back in Derry... this is where we have saved our big scenes for, so it’s dead exciting
new series has not yet been announced.
The first series became the most-watched show set in Northern Ireland since modern records began in 2002.
The comedy series ended poignantly with main characters Erin, Michelle, Clare, Orla and James dancing around their school hall, while at home Ma Mary, Da Gerry, Aunt Sarah and Granda Joe were watching the aftermath of a devastating bomb unfold on TV.