Everything we know about a Derry Girls spin-off show
We'd love to see this happen!
Derry Girls has amassed a legion of fans thanks to its sharp humour and heartfelt scenes. However, we won't be getting any new episodes of the show, with series three, which aired in 2022, having been the last series of Derry Girls.
We were sad to say goodbye to the show and its much-loved characters - including Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) and Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan) - when the final series reached its emotional end. There's still some great news for fans though, with the show's writer Lisa McGee having previously spoken about the possibility of a spin-off show.
Whilst nothing has been officially confirmed, we've put together everything we know about a potential Derry Girls spin-off show...
Will there be a Derry Girls spin-off show?
At a premiere event for series three back in April 2022, the show's creator and writer Lisa McGee spoke to Sunday Life on the red carpet, where she revealed that she was thinking of making a spin-off series focusing on Ma Mary (Tara Lynne O'Neill) and Aunt Sarah (Kathy Kiera Clarke). However, nothing has been officially confirmed as of yet.
What has the show's creator said about a spin-off show?
Speaking about the possibility of a future Derry Girls spin-off show, Lisa explained: "What I want to do is a spin-off with Ma Mary and Aunt Sarah solving crime and setting up a detective agency in Derry. Wouldn’t that be incredible?
"They’re so amazing in this series as the two sisters and I just thought it would be great to know what they get up to in secret, so I have this theory that they run about the town running this detective agency.
"Maybe the girls could have cameos too — they could be their spies about the city."
Lisa has also been asked if there would be a Derry Girls movie, where she added that she wanted to work with show director Michael Lennox again. She said: "A movie isn’t on my radar at the moment, not right now. You never know, but I have other commitments, as does Michael."
Along with her husband Tobias Beer, Lisa has also written the psychological drama The Deceived, which stars Paul Mescal.
What have the cast of Derry Girls said about a spin-off show?
Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, who plays Michelle on the show, added: "I think that Lisa has developed these characters to the point where you could do a million spin-offs, you could do a million prequels.
"I think that Michelle would work in a bookies and then end up owning a chain of them, like an absolute boss. She would work to the max. She would still be friends with the girls — they’re besties and they’ll be friends for life.
"There will be more shenanigans. These sorts of people don’t go through life being normal with no madness."
Tara Lynne O'Neill, who plays Mary Quinn, told JOE that she'd love to see a spin-off featuring the show's older characters. She said: "I was trying to get Lisa to do a spin-off called 'Derry Auld Ones'. Obviously, the younger characters will all go off to university and all the auld ones are left back home. That's when we have our fun!
"Just Ma Mary, Granda Joe, Gerry, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Colm, just sitting there, having tea and watching London's Burning!"
Take a look at the amazing cast of Derry Girls:
Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin Quinn
Saoirse-Monica said of her character: "Erin is selfish, self-righteous, self-absorbed. She would do anything for herself, she would throw one of her friends under the bus. She's really out for herself as selfish teenagers are.
"She's ambitious, she wants to be a writer, she wants to move away, but in reality she's so much more naïve than she pretends to be. She pretends to be really worldly, and she has such romantic ideas of herself. But her friends are always there to remind her that they're completely untrue."
Louisa Harland as Orla McCool
Louisa said of Orla: "I would describe her as being very free. She has no inhibitions. She doesn't stop herself from thinking. She doesn't judge herself or others and I think she's a really lovely character."
Nicola Coughlan as Clare Devlin
Nicola opened up about Clare: "I always think of her as a bit of a Machiavellian genius. Lisa said she wanted to give her a really sensible first name, with a surname that implied she had the devil in her. Because she's a geek, but she's not a nice geek. She'd happily sell her friends down the river if she needed to.
"She's quite ambitious. I've met the real-life girl Clare was based on. It was such a bizarre experience. In this job, you meet a lot of people off the television, and famous people, but I was way more star-struck meeting the real, actual Clare than I was meeting any of those other people. I think she's got a lot of good intentions – I think Clare and Erin think they're the really moral, high-ground-based people, when in fact the other three are a lot more morally sound. But at the same time, I think Clare has a lot of love for her friends – it's always fun to see the dynamic between Clare and Michelle, because they'd never be friends if it wasn't for Erin."
Jamie-Lee O'Donnell as Michelle Mallon
Jamie-Lee says of Michelle: "Michelle really thinks she's maybe just a bit too big for the place she was born in and she's ready to take on the world one swearword at a time. She's really feisty, really ballsy, doesn't really care about authority, just sort of up for anything and up for a laugh."
Dylan Llewellyn as James Maguire
Dylan said of his character: "James is 'the wee English fella'. His mum is from Derry, and she went over to England to have an abortion, but didn't go ahead with it, so James is born, and grows up in England. Then his mum and him go back to Derry, where she just abandons him with his cousin and aunt. From then on, it's all an uphill struggle for him, because he's put in the all-girls school, as they're scared he's going to get beaten up in the boys' school, for being English. That's pretty much it, really."
Siobhán McSweeney as Sister Michael
Siobhán spoke to Independent.ie about her character in March 2019: "I think what I personally like about Sister Michael is what people are picking up on as well, which is her complete 'doesn't give a damn' attitude, her utter freedom. For me, when I think about her being a nun, I think only about the freedom it gives her. She's not restricted by social norms, she doesn't have to behave in a certain way. It's the freedom the uniform has given her to an extent. She is our id in a way, what we always wish we could say but cannot say. That is a gift."
Tara Lynne O'Neill as Ma (Mary)
Tara Lynne spoke about her character to the Belfast Telegraph: "The bits of truth Lisa has got in there that she obviously exaggerates or explores, I think that's why people are relating to it, and there's that essence of truth that we all remember. It reminds me so much of myself - it's totally the same. The soundtrack is my youth. Every song I can tell you where I was and what I was doing when that was playing. All these people in their 40s are watching it and saying 'I remember that, I remember this at the disco'. It's a great memory for everyone."
Tommy Tiernan as Da (Gerry)
Tommy spoke to YM Liverpool in January 2020 about joining the show: "I read the script and it made me laugh. It was as easy and ordinary as that. Gerry was originally written to be from the north (of Ireland), but I'm not brilliant at sustaining accents to a believable degree. I can do them for a minute or so but not over the course of a series. So I said to Channel 4, 'if you put a Southerner in that situation, it gives you good comic scope'. It's another reason for the grandad to hate the dad."
Ian McElhinney as Granda Joe
Game of Thrones star Ian said of working on the show: "He has some great put-downs for Gerry. There's been some great one-liners and I'm delighted to have them. Tommy is a fantastic sparring partner on set - I'd never met him before or seen his stand-up shows, and he's a lovely fella, so it was really nice to work together."
Kathy Kiera Clarke as Aunt Sarah
Kathy Kiera spoke about filming in August 2019 to Irish News, saying: "If I'm filming, I could be up as early as 4.15am for a shower and then out the door. Aunt Sarah is first into make-up. Obviously!" adding of her lunch times whilst filming, "On set, it will be the full works, with dessert, even if I have to squeeze into another unforgiving, skin-tight number favoured by Aunt Sarah!"
Leah O'Rourke as Jenny Joyce
Leah told Hello! magazine in April 2019 about working on the show: "I went to an all-girls Catholic school and we had two nuns working in it - one nun was very very scary and was intimidating and had some qualities of Sister Michael. It was so similar. I think when I first got the script I really related to it and I found that probably helped me in the audition because I felt I had experienced something similar."
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