Derry Girls was one of 2018’s television megahits – a sitcom that explores 90s teenage girlhood and all of its awkward, complex ephemera during the Northern Irish troubles. Army checks of school buses, sectarian banter, and bomb scares were just as normal as cringy encounters with crushes, detention, and dramatic family arguments. Its five leads – two of which are from Derry themselves – harness humour and ham against a backdrop of political turmoil, all to the sounds of The Cranberries and 90s R&B. Their teen experience is complicated yet universal.
Now, the second season of Lisa McGee’s series is due to drop soon on Channel 4, and we’ve got an exclusive first glimpse. In the trailer, the Catholic schoolgirls – and Michelle’s English male cousin – instigate encounters with some Protestant boys on a cross-community trip.
“We heard you boys are having a party,” says Michelle, flanked by the overly excited gang.
“Nope,” says the confused teen boy at his dorm bedroom door.
“Well yous are now!”
The trailer whizzes through some school disco scenes, disaster journeys to see Take That (or ‘This and That’ as Erin’s mum calls them), sloppy kisses and 90s boiler suits.
“No one from any other place in the UK could have had the same experiences as us growing up but there’s a universality to being a teenager. You’re so selfish that what’s going on in your world is more important than what’s going on around you,” McGee told Dazed prior to the first season.
Derry Girls season two will debut on Channel 4 soon. Watch the trailer below.