And final series

Coughlan admits she initially questioned its potential to attract audiences beyond the Irish border, given the specificity of its subject matter. Little did she know the cultural cornerstone the show would become.

“When Tarantino was in The Simpsons, he said he knew he’d really made it. So we’re up there now – I’m practically Tarantino in my mind,” laughs co-star O’Donnell, referencing the legendary Pulp Fiction director. A nod to a recent episode of the US animated comedy which paid tribute to the show by naming its ice-cream parlour ‘Dairy Girls’, the honourable reference saw series creator McGee take to Twitter and dramatically proclaim: ‘I. Am. dead.’

In spite of the recent international attention the show has garnered – bringing with it the temptation to further extend its television run, McGee has stuck to her guns. Series three was always the finishing line. The writing talent behind shows including The Deceived and Being Human, she’s continued to nurture the show’s characters as though they were her very own children.

Noting the way in which the creator would regularly checkin with the cast in order to reassure them about the fate of their characters, O’Donnell, who most recently starred in Channel 4 prison drama Screw, says the beauty of McGee’s writing lies in its “warmth”.

“I just thought it was such a beautiful way to look at it – that as the writer and creator of us, as she was writing the last season, she was always conscious that we were going to be okay,” says O’Donnell, emotion clear in her voice.

Exposing an altogether more vulnerable side to the usually fiery Michelle this series, O’Donnell recounts her innate desire to “protect” her on-screen character at all costs. “It sounds insane, I know that, but the thought of people watching Michelle when she’s not, quote unquote on form, makes me feel a wee bit protective over her,” adds the actress. “It made me want to cry a wee bit.”

Describing the show as a “love letter” to McGee’s birth city of Londonderry, fellow actress SaoirseMonica Jackson, who plays the highly strung Erin Quinn, says, “I think it was the first time these sort of stories were told in a show from the North, that wasn’t in such a dark light.”

Derry Girls, Channel 4, Tuesday, 9.15pm.