Derry Girls New Series

[Taytocrisps]

Counting down the days here.

Yes, obvs and he's not called Brad

I didn't love the episode, but I did like the whole "He's a gay!" "Our daughter's a gay!" thing. It reminded me of certain individuals who are coming from a good place in their hearts, but haven't quite got the accepted vocab down yet.

I said it tongue in cheek as he had to keep saying it to everyone 😬

I did think the "child" actors in last nights episode were much better than the actual Derry Girls cast 🥴....this series at least.

Wasn't fussed on last nights episode!

I've come late to DG, but watched Season 1 and last night's episode. Every time I think 'that's OTT' a bit of fantastic comic timing comes along. It's so good. Keiron (?) asking Sarah if she wanted to dance, and she says yes, passes him the snacks and dances with her sister. And the blue suits. Just wonderful. There is literally nothing else on TV that makes me laugh out loud like this.

I'd actually have liked to see more of the girls rather than the parents. It Was a nice episode but I prefer the younger ones

Absolutely loved that episode… made even better by my past pupil appearing as young Deirdre!! Perfect episode.Hilarious and moving.

I loved the way it cut between the dancing at the reunion and the flashbacks, with the same moves and style being shown by the2 Marys, Sarahs et al.

I enjoyed the episode, surprised by the timeline though- if it was supposed to be 19 years ago then they were all pregnant about a year later!

I think it was supposed to be about 20 years earlier, and the (current) girls are 16/17 (in lower 6th, just got their GCSE results), so they’d have been born 3-4 years later when the mammies were around 21? Completely standard age for a first time mum at the time.

I really liked the way the wee mammies were a perfect hybrid of their older selves and their daughters.
And those suits!!

The suits were fabulous. I spent most of the episode trying to work out if it was the regular cast playing their mothers, so clearly some great likenesses.

But can anyone who grew up in NI at the time say whether parents would have really been so cheerful about their daughter being gay? I’m pretty sure most of the parents I knew in the 90s would have found it very hard to come to terms with.

@Doubleraspberry we were also trying to work out whether the regular cast were playing their mothers, very well cast

Same here. I'm just watching now and I'm 90% certain that Rob/Brad is actually James!

I think some parents would have found it hard to come to terms with. Certainly in a very catholic family some people even today might find it hard to come to terms with, although lots of parents would still have loved and accepted their child. Although unlikely they would have been as open and happy as everyone is about Claire. But again it’s a light comedy. Claire’s parents chucking her out on the street and all her friends rejecting her for being a lesbian hardly fits the bill.

I loved young Deirdre the most of all of the young mammies - perfect Michelle-esque mannerisms and showcasing the young punk aesthetic. Perfect, they all were.

I thought Deirdre was a fine lookin' woman, even as a mammy. Loved that tartan jacket. Wish we'd seen more from her.

I was also very happy to hear Mary talking about how she's starting university.

NI here. Hmmm, my sis came out in the mid 90s. She was a bit worried about how our parents would take it, but they were and have remained staunchly supportive. But as with anything, reactions would vary from one family to another.

I can't believe the parents are only meant to be about 37-38.

Me too! I’m 37 and they all seem so much older than me and my friends.

I also had assumed at first that Aunt Sarah was in her forties and Ma & Da in their fifties! So if they’re in their thirties the costume and make up departments have done a marvellous job of harking back to a time when adults did look considerably older for their age than we’d expect now.

Wonder if Mary’s first steps into university (or the later outcomes of this) will be included in the finale episode.

I absolutely can. Growing up in NI in the 90s, for a working class woman 40 was ooooold and quite possibly about to become a grandmother, hair often greying and permed, nylon pinny territory. It was a different time.

I've always assumed Mary was about 38 and Sarah was perhaps 2-3 years younger. We knew Mary had to be under 45 or so as she just had another baby about 1-2 years ago.

Tommy Tiernan is 53. The actress playing Mary is 47. And they look their age. I assumed the parents were meant to be similar ages to the actors, not a decade+ younger.

It was 1997, people in their 30s didn't normally dress like late middle-aged frumps. Look at characters like Sally, Gail, Natalie, etc on Coronation Street in 1997 to see how characters with similar lifestyles and character ages dressed. Not super stylish by 90s standards but not so old either. Mary is styled far frumpier than a woman of 37 would have dressed, while also looking the age of the woman playing her.

People really did dress that frumpy in small town NI at that age and time, @Wanderingowl. NI was a very different place from the rest of the UK before the Good Friday agreement and a lot more parochial and old-fashioned. It was not uncommon to see people in their early forties who looked like people we'd assume today were in their late sixties/early seventies.