While surrounded by her best friends at a screening of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee had a thought: “I realised I’m watching versions of us as kids and now we’re grown up. I wondered what the kids would think of who we’ve become”. This line of thought birthed the writer’s new hit Netflix show, How to Get to Heaven From Belfast. 

The Irish and British comedy thriller follows three women, Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne), who learn that the estranged fourth member of their teenage friendship group, Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe), has unexpectedly passed away. They travel back to Donegal to pay their respects, but quickly learn that not everything is as it seems; and in order to uncover the truth about their friend, they must dig up memories from their youth that they wish to keep buried.

“I really liked being a teen,” McGee tells Dazed. “I was really dorky, but so were all my friends. I used to call us a gang of dicks – we were so naive and innocent. It wasn’t always easy, of course. We never had any money, and so much was going on around us in Northern Ireland at the time, but I had a lot of fun because a wee group of friends supported me. That’s why I’m still so drawn to writing about female friendships.” 

Following the show’s release, we spoke to McGee about making the murder mystery genre her own, the importance of female friendships and how she tried to address the copaganda inherent to crime fiction.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast follows three friends – Saoirse, Robyn and Dara – who are essentially investigating the death of their friend Greta and start realising that something dodgy is going on. It’s a fun show, with a fun premise. How did you come up with it?

Lisa McGee: I’ve always wanted to write a mystery – it’s my favourite genre. I thought, ‘If I do this, I have to do it my way’. It would have to have a lot of comedy in it, and it would have to be very Irish and chaotic. The idea really came from when I was going to screenings of Derry Girls, with my friends, who the gang from Derry Girls are based on. I realised I’m watching versions of us as kids, and now we’re grown-ups, and I started thinking about what the kids would think of who we’ve become. I became a bit obsessed with this relationship between who we are now and our younger selves.

How did you come up with the show’s name?

Lisa McGee: I can’t take credit for it. During freshers week, when I was at university, this street preacher gave me a leaflet for a religious meeting titled ‘How to get to heaven from Belfast’. I didn’t go to the meeting, but I did keep the flyer and thought, ‘That’ll be a good name for something.’

What other pieces of media were you inspired by when writing the show? What were you reading and watching?

Lisa McGee: This list could get me locked up – it’s so insane. Scooby Doo, The A Team, Twin Peaks, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, a lot of Irish plays, ghost stories and some Irish myths and legends.

There was something about this idea that the teenage girl you used to be is still living inside – I find that really beautiful 

I really like the way you write your female characters in How to Get to Heaven from Belfast and Derry Girls. I’m Nigerian and Irish, and I find that Irish and Nigerian people act very similarly. There’s this – for lack of a better word – brutishness to the ways we interact with each other that is still so filled with love. Could you speak more about how you approach writing these characters?

Lisa McGee: I know exactly what you mean. My son’s best friend is Nigerian and his mum and I are almost in competition about our son’s bad behaviour. When I lived in London, it was always people trying to show off how well their kids are doing, but my son’s friends’ mum and me are doing the opposite, we’re like ‘No he’s the worst’, ‘No, mine is the worst’ – you know? [laughs].

To answer your question more directly, I try to be very truthful to the relationships I’m witnessing in real life. I felt like what I was seeing on screen [depictions of women] wasn’t always truthful. They feel like watered-down versions of reality. Maybe it’s because I’m surrounded by women who are a bit louder, more outspoken, and not afraid to be the funny person in the room. So I’m just representing what I see and hear. I think we’re still not used to that. There are more and more female writers, and more Irish writers – so I think we are seeing, and will see, more honest depictions of female friendships, but I was trying to get close to what my friendship group was and is like.

Like Derry Girls, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is about women who had this very strong bond in secondary school. What drew you back to exploring teenagehood in this new show?

Lisa McGee: I’m just obsessed with it. At my age now, I’m in my forties, and I still feel like a teenage girl pretending to be a grown-up. When you meet up with those people you grew up with again, you revert to your younger self. There was something about this idea that the teenage girl you used to be is still living inside – I find that really beautiful. I also wanted to give female friendship the same weight that romantic relationships get because I think it’s more interesting, and in my experience, it often lasts longer [laughs].

‘I’m surrounded by women who are a bit louder, more outspoken, and not afraid to be the funny person in the room. So I’m just representing what I see and hear’ – Lisa McGee

The show’s soundtrack features some 90s and 00s classics: Atomic Kitten, The Spice Girls and S Club 7. Why did you incorporate so much 90s music in a show set mostly in the present day? Marty Supreme recently did something similar.

Lisa McGee: We worked out that when those girls would have been 16, it would have been 2003. So we made this rule that we would only use music from that year. Any commercial tracks, as the ones you listed, were around 2003. We broke that rule sometimes because we were like, ‘We have to have Bewitched in there.’ For the most part, we wanted to double down on this idea that these women are stuck in that time period and can’t get out.

The show explores themes of friendship, the LGBTQ+ community, abuse and more. But I was particularly interested in the narratives around the Garda (police), specifically Liam’s character (Darragh Hand). Liam has a conversation with Saoirse about why he joined the Garda. He talks about how wanted to fight bad guys, but now people believe the Garda are the bad guys. Why did you feel the need to include this discussion? Especially with a character like Liam, who is Black and mixed race?

Lisa McGee: I didn’t have that in mind with the casting of Liam when I wrote it. That all happened later. That particular speech between Liam and Saoirse went on to talk about copaganda and how many of the police on TV are goodies. I really wanted to say something about that because I was aware this show could also be accused of doing the same. So I wanted to say, ‘We’re aware that being a policeman is complicated on screen.’ That’s why he had that speech, but the actual conversation about copaganda got cut because it just went on too long. We’re also exploring this idea that Liam’s conflicted being in this job. He got in for the right reasons, but then discovers that his boss, Owen, may not be a good guy, and he’s probably working with other guys who aren’t good. So yeah, it’s all about these grey areas in this show. That’s what I love to explore.

How to Get to Heaven From Belfast is streaming now on Netflix