Derry Girls To Air Special Flashback Episode Next Week

Derry Girls are to air a special flashback episode featuring the 1970s school days of Ma Mary and Aunt Sarah next week.

The Channel Four hit it is currently in its third and final series, which has given them an opportunity to pay tribute to these two strong female characters, according to the show's creator Lisa McGee.

"The third season, it's my last chance, I have to do it now", she said. "So that was the first episode of this series I pitched to Channel 4. It's risky because it's very different, and it's not the show's formula, but they just went 'Yeah, go for it' because they're Channel 4 and they're incredible and taking risks is the thing they're known for". 

McGee also said that this episode which airs on May 10, will also offer insight into the "horrific" times that these two women endured during the school days of the 1970s.

"Writing this show, honestly - and this might sound a bit sentimental - it's been a real learning experience for me as a person, not just a writer", she explained. "I don't talk about a lot of the terrible things". 

"In Northern Ireland, you handle it with humour, and you just crack on. I think for the parents' generation, it was a war zone. It was horrific what they went through, and we just didn't appreciate it". 

"We just moaned and then complained when we were not allowed to do anything", McGee continued. 

"By writing the show and looking back I realised why they were so strict, why the school was so strict, what they had seen, what they lived through, and I have such an appreciation and respect. I'm so embarrassed at how we behaved now!". 

"They were incredible what they got through, they're just the strongest people, that generation". 

"a tribute to these women"

Linda McGee added that she wanted to creat this episode as she "always wanted to write something as a tribute to those women. It was mostly women, particularly in Derry, most of the workforce would have been women".

"There was hardly any jobs for men, and it was the factory town, so people earning the wage and you know, head of the household, it was mummy culture. I just want to just sort of pay tribute to that, and to the women that got us through it", she revealed. 

On Ma Mary played by Tara Lynne O'Neill and Aunt Sarah played by Kathy Kiera Clarke, Linda McGee had this to say.

"Before s*** got serious and they had their family, they were the silly people too. I mean, they're still quite silly on the show as adults, but you know, all mummies were young once!".