Derry Girls Creator Inspired by Murder She Wrote

If Lisa McGee wasn’t a multi award-winning screen writer, she could see herself solving mysteries, with a little help from her friends.

Growing up, the creator of hit TV show Derry Girls was ‘obsessed’ with Murder, She Wrote and its main character, the sleuthing crime author Jessica Fletcher. Lisa wanted to live in Cabot Cove, the made-up fishing village in Maine where Jessica lived and which had a disproportionately high rate of murders.

The young Lisa admired the fact that Jessica wasn’t defined by a man but successfully turned out book after book while helping to bring cold-blooded killers to justice.

These days, she’s still a fan of the iconic show but has since developed an interest in true crime documentaries and podcasts. Her tight-knit group of friends, still in her circle since her days at Thornhill College in Derry, are also suckers for a good mystery.

So when it came to writing her latest show, How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, Lisa decided to combine her passion for puzzle-solving and her signature dark humour, with female friendship at the heart of the story.

LIsa McGee, screenwriter and creator of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

‘Me and my friends are convinced, like I mean convinced, that we could solve a mystery,’ says McGee, ahead of the launch of her new Netflix eight-parter.

‘We watch true crime all the time, like a lot of women do, and listen to true crime podcasts. If we were actually put in that situation though, we’d be a nightmare.

‘This is my attempt to do Murder, She Wrote but with three crazy Northern Irish women. She was so clever and cool under pressure, whereas these three aren’t. But they get to do the fun bits, like solving puzzles.

‘With the new show, we’re paying homage to Murder, She Wrote, Scooby Doo and Twin Peaks. I like playing around with different genres.’

Female friendship drives much of McGee’s writing. She says she can’t ever see a time when she pens a script about a romance, before adding, ‘never say never though’. But the bond that ties teenage girls and carries them through mid-life is something she believes will continue to inspire her on her hugely successful TV journey.

Do her friends mind being the inspiration for her work?

‘I don’t ask,’ she laughs, then proceeds to explain how the new romance of a pal’s dad planted the seed of a Derry Girls storyline.

‘My friends say, “Have you been talking out of school again?” and I just go, “Well, you shouldn’t tell me then”,’ she laughs.

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, which McGee began writing four years ago, follows three school friends – Saoirse, Robyn and Dara – who are now in their 30s and leading very different lives while retaining their close bond.

Saoirse, played by Roísín Gallagher, is a clever, chaotic TV writer who wants to move on from her hugely popular show and is unsure about her future with fiancé Seb. Sinéad Keenan is glamorous, stressed-out mum-of-three Robyn, who’s married to Jim and enjoys a wealthy lifestyle.

Dara, portrayed by Caoilfhionn Dunne, is the gentle peacemaker of the trio, a dependable carer who still lives at home with her mum and sister and sleeps in her teenage bedroom.

Sinéad Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne and Róisín Gallagher in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast

Out of the blue, the three friends receive an email about the death of the estranged fourth member of their childhood gang, Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe). It quickly becomes apparent that the trio haven’t seen Greta since their late teens and that something major happened to cause the falling out.

At her wake in Knockdara, a fictional town in Donegal, a series of bizarre events sets the pals on a dark, dangerous and hilarious journey throughout Ireland and beyond, as they try to piece together the truth about the past.

McGee says that the subject of female friendship dynamics has always interested her and that, as with Derry Girls, the characters in her new series are inspired by people she knows. Dara, for example, is based on the same friend who provided the inspiration for Orla in Derry Girls, so similarities are noted between the two. Robyn shares some traits with another glamorous friend, who has ‘about 70 children and still manages to do everything’, while Saoirse is a TV writer who occasionally finds herself getting frustrated with the industry – no explanation needed about who she might be based on.

‘I love Dara as a character,’ says McGee. ‘She’s a really great friend and has a good moral compass, the way Orla does in Derry Girls. Orla was so exaggerated and eccentric, but she would always do the right thing, so there’s a direct line to those two.

‘Obviously, for television, you have to push them in certain directions to make them interesting on screen and change certain things about them, but I always tend to start with real people that I know because I just think that’s such a good way to get inside characters’ heads.’

It was while watching a screening of Derry Girls in her native city one night, surrounded by her friends, that McGee began to wonder what their younger selves might make them of now. Would they admire the older women and be proud of their achievements or would they find them wanting in some way?

This idea started to take shape following a late-night visit to her old convent school in Derry. Teachers and pupils had relocated to a new building across the road in the early 2000s, and the premises in which McGee and her friends had been schooled lay vacant.

Seeing scarves still hanging up on hooks and writing chalked across the blackboards made her think again of her teenage self and how she might judge McGee now. It made perfect sense to her to write a mystery centred on a group of women coming face to face with their pasts – and to make them Belfast women.

‘I could just see it in my mind, this mystery comedy,’ says McGee, who lives in Belfast these days’. The Northern Irish sense of humour is so dark, but we’re also ridiculous.

‘Sometimes if you’ve had a friend for a long time, they might bring something up, something you don’t like, or you might bring something up that they think they’re a bit above now. I was interested in that and what if it was a really bad thing that they’re trying not to talk about.’

The ensemble cast boasts quite a few familiar faces, including Derry Girls’ Saoirse Monica Jackson, who played Erin Quinn (loosely based on McGee) in the popular sitcom and Derry actor/singer Bronagh Gallagher. The pair play Feeney and Booker, two mysterious ‘women warriors’ with a twist.

McGee had always wanted to write a character specifically for Gallagher, one with a Western feel, and says she and Jackson play the dark parts perfectly.

The ‘amazing’ cast also includes Emmett J Scanlan, Michelle Fairley, Josh Finan, Art Campion, Darragh Hand and Ardal O’Hanlon. The latter plays Seamus, the owner of the hotel in Knockdara, where the three women stay while attending Greta’s wake.

McGee enjoyed writing the motley bunch of characters butparticularly had fun with Seamus.

‘Ardal is one of my comedy heroes,’ she says. ‘He’s a genius. He just can’t not be funny. Seamus is a real character. Running this hotel is everything he’s dreamed of. He thinks it’s the best job in the world. He’s full of craic and devilment and no one enjoys him as much as he enjoys himself.’

McGee, who also created and wrote London Irish and co-wrote psychological thriller The Deceived with her husband Tobias Beer, likes to weave clues and cameos through her work and delighted fans of Derry Girls with a few famous guest appearances.

The cast of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee's hit home town show

In the third and final series of the Channel 4 sitcom, Liam Neeson popped up as a police inspector, while Chelsea Clinton also appeared, in a full-circle moment for McGee, who’d written to the former US President’s daughter in 1995, at the age of 13.

In How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, The Late Late Show and its host Patrick Kielty are featured in a nod to McGee’s childhood and her huge respect for the Co Down man. She was desperate to get Kielty on board and was thrilled when he agreed.

‘The Late Late Show was a big part of my childhood and having Paddy as host, it’s the Northern Ireland thing, I was so proud of him when he got the job,’ she says. ‘I’m a big fan of the show but I’m also a big fan of Paddy’s and I wanted to do something to shine a wee light on that.

‘I was on The Late Late Show one St Patrick’s Day myself, and it was the most surreal experience of my life. The show is mad but in the best way and I remember thinking, I must remember all this because it would be funny in a comedy. I think I even said that to Ryan Tubridy at the time.’

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast sees the creative team behind Derry Girls, including director Michael Lennox, back together for this ‘wild, weird adventure’. McGee says she’s ‘in awe’ of the cast – their talent, timing and chemistry – and is grateful to Netflix for supporting the team’s ‘mad vision’. Finding the right actors to play the three leads was the most important piece of the puzzle and McGee says they hit the jackpot with

Belfast-born Gallagher and Dubliners Keenan and Dunne. In the initial chemistry reading, the trio gelled so well and appeared like such a tight-knit group of friends, that the creative team knew they had found their Saoirse, Robyn and Dara.

She also pays homage to Donegal in the new Netflix series, describing the county as her ‘favourite place on earth’. In her earlier show, The Deceived, Donegal provided the backdrop along with Cambridge, and again is the setting for much of the antics and action.

Growing up in Derry, McGee spent summer holidays in Donegal and has fond memories of the place and its people.

‘I love Donegal with my whole heart,’ she says. ‘I have so much affection for it, but it’s a law unto itself.

‘I’ve written a few things and gone to Donegal for them. There’s always a murder or something weird going on. I’m not trying to say something weird about it though, because I really do love it. It’s my favourite place on earth.’

Catholicism is given a similar treatment, slightly irreverent but always respectful. Given the subject matter and title of the show, wakes, funeral masses, rosary processions and the clergy – including a Sister Michael-inspired character – feature heavily.

It wouldn’t be an Irish comedy otherwise, says McGee. There’s a particular laugh-out-loud moment involving a rosary walk to Knock and a statue of Jesus which she was keen to include.

‘I have a friend who’s very

religious and when I had the idea, I rang her to ask her to explain how these walks work,’ says McGee. ‘She said, “Oh no Lisa, what are you writing?”

‘It feels very real and truthful to me, if you’re Irish. Whether you’re religious or not, you’ll probably have family who are, or you’ve grown up with it. It’s ripe for comedy.

‘There are members of my family who are very religious and I find it gorgeous and characterful, the things that happen. I have uncles and aunts who do those pilgrimages and it’s such brilliant territory. But it’s done with affection. I’m on board and I find those people such interesting characters.’

n How To Get To Heaven From Belfast will premiere globally on Netflix on Thursday.