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1.7 million viewers tuned into Channel 4's new sitcom set during the Troubles last night

Derry Girls centres around a teenage girl named Erin, her group of friends, and her family.

DERRY GIRLS, A new sitcom set during the Troubles, began last night on Channel 4 and over 1.6 million people tuned in to watch it.

Derry Girls Adam Lawrence / Channel 4 Adam Lawrence / Channel 4 / Channel 4

The show was written and created by Derry native Lisa McGee, who told the Telegraph that her 90s childhood was not reflected in the typical depiction of the Troubles:

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.

Derry Girls centres around a teenage girl named Erin, her group of friends, and her family.

The show had an average audience of 1.6 million, and viewership peaked at 1.7 million, according to Channel 4.

Tommy Tiernan plays the role of her dad, while Game of Thrones’ Ian McElhinney plays the role of her grandfather.

People were hoping it would live up to the hype and happily, it did that in spades.

There was so much to love in the show’s take on Irish teenage life

knickers Channel 4 Channel 4

Between the Trocaire 24 hour fast, wanting to be an individual (but only if everyone else was doing it), older girls in secondary school picking fights with first years, there was a lot of aspects of the show to relate to.

Along with the fresh perspective on daily occurrences during the Troubles

soldier Channel 4 Channel 4

tawn Channel 4 Channel 4

Bomb scare? Ah, sure that’ll make it harder to get to school. Soldiers with guns checking the bus? Literal yawn.

The endless cracks at one of the main characters James were just gas

english fella Channel 4 Channel 4

James is an English teenager who has somehow ended up as the only male pupil in an all-female school in Northern Ireland. Of course, he ended up being the butt of several jokes.

Derry Girls continues next Thursday at 10pm, right on time to brighten up these cold January nights. Book an appointment with the sofa.

Read: An Irish tax rebates Facebook page has produced an unlikely celebrity with ‘Tax Rebae’>

More: Remember when Anjelica Huston played Mrs Brown before Brendan O’Carroll did?>

Written by Valerie Loftus and posted on DailyEdge.ie

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    Mute Aidan Leonard
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    Sep 7th 2021, 7:29 AM

    You forgot to mention the amount if technology around today that was directly inspired by Sci fi too…..

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    Sep 7th 2021, 10:10 AM

    @Aidan Leonard: a lot of the look of modern technology is inspired by sci-fi and how it shows how cool something could be, but a lot of the nuts and bolts come from just a need to get something done in a certain way or for efficiency. The first mainframes were mainly military linked and the development of the nuclear bomb and the organisation of large scale logistics and navigation of missiles and seas had a lot to do with it (see Grace Hopper) also educational, like the Plato project, they basically invented flat touchscreens and interconnected networks (independent of arpanet) in the 60s because they needed to but they weren’t thinking of the likes of star trek at all.

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    Sep 7th 2021, 9:20 AM

    We can make video calls to people around the world and travel to the other side of the planet in 24h, which we couldn’t do at the turn of the 20th century. No doubt big advancements will be made in the next 100 years, although with flight there was about 400 years in the difference between conception and realisation.

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    Sep 7th 2021, 12:53 PM

    @Jj: flight has slowed down in technological advances. Compare 1900-1940, 1940-1980 and 1980-2020. Maybe it will start up again but I feel that the billionaires might be engaging in pet projects. Definitely Bezos. Musk has something worthwhile going on.

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    Mute Sean May
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    Sep 7th 2021, 10:49 AM

    An interesting and enjoyable read, Mr Fennel. As a life-long fan of Science-Fiction myself, I can certainly relate.

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