As Lisa McGee’s masterclass of a sitcom begins its final season, it comes close to being a model of perfection. It’s a bittersweet goodbye
All good things must come to an end – particularly if that good thing is a beloved British sitcom. Like myriad comedies before it, Lisa McGee’s semi-autobiographical Derry Girls (Channel 4) – a knockabout schooldays farce set in mid-90s Northern Ireland – has opted to go out on a high with its third series. There’s a reason why UK shows tend to quit while they’re ahead: they often rely on a single creative force rather than a bustling US-style writers’ room, which means they are liable to exhaust their makers. On a less technical note, that the supposedly 16-year-old protagonists are currently being played by actors fast approaching 30 (one is 35) means Derry Girls has never been the most sustainable of enterprises.
Even so, it will be a bittersweet goodbye. Over the past four years, Derry Girls has established itself as a cultural juggernaut: not only is it the most-watched series in Northern Ireland on record, it was recently honoured with a reference in The Simpsons (“I. Am. dead,” tweeted McGee in response). Its success is no fluke: the show is a masterclass in hitting the sweet spot between decades-honed sitcom tradition and refreshing nowness. Its nostalgia is bright and cosy like a jazzy 90s jumper; its portrayal of young women as morally ambivalent and intrinsically comic human beings a cathartic, satisfying relief.
