Behind the Scenes of A Popular TV Show, Talking Derry Girls Podcast

Links from this Episode:

• Podcast Consultation Form 
• Talking Derry Girls Podcast ​​ 
• Talking Derry Girls Website 
• Talking Derry Girls Episode 13  
• Talking Derry Girls Episode 35  

This is how the host of the show describes Talking Derry Girls. Jeannie, Mary Louise, and Pauline love the channel four sitcom Derry Girls, based in their home city. They knew it would be fun to re-watch the series and chat about each episode in detail. You don’t have to be from Derry or even a girl. Being a Derry Girl is a state of mind. Come on in. 

The length of each episode is about 45 minutes long. Before we learn more about the vibe of Talking Derry Girls, we’re going to take a quick break to talk about my podcast consultations. 

Podcast Consultations

I’ve been able to talk to some amazing podcasters about their shows while doing interviews for the friendly podcast guide. Along the way, I’ve learned so many tips and tricks on how to start a podcast from personal experience and from the hosts I’ve interviewed. I’ve talked to them about what made their launch successful and what made it more difficult. I for sure know what I would do differently if I could go back and launch my show again.

Now I want to share my knowledge with you. I’m offering podcast consults and I have a couple of spots open in the next month. If you need help nailing down your podcast idea, figuring out your niche, or any other podcast questions, I would love to work with you to make your show’s launch the best it can be.

If you’re interested in working with me, fill out the intake form in the show notes. I can’t wait to make a podcast plan that is tailored to you and your podcast, and we’ll make your launch as smooth and successful as possible.  

Starting Talking Derry Girls  

I’m Pauline and I’m the co-host and producer of a podcast called Talking Derry Girls. We’ve been making this podcast now for just over three years. We have about 77 episodes. I co-host it with two old friends from the 90’s, Jeanie and Mary Louise. We all are from Ireland. We’re from a city called Derry or London Derry. There’s a whole lot of political reasons why it’s got two names, which would take far too long to get into. 

Listen to the podcast and you’ll find out. We started the podcast after a TV program that was made in our home city, Derry Girls. Some people might have heard of it. After it came out we wondering if anyone was making a podcast about this. We looked it up and nobody was. We were one of those podcasts that started at the beginning of Covid, but we’re still going.

The Rise of a Popular TV Program

You’d probably have to know a bit about the TV program to get the most out of the podcast. It’s a comedy that is set in the nineties. It is a time when Northern Ireland was going through a lot of turmoil politically. We were coming out of a 30 year old conflict, known as the Troubles. We have lived most of our lives through that, up until adulthood. 

It was quite rough at times, but, the place that I’m from, Derry, it started there actually in 1969 with a riot and it just kept going. The show has a very sort of dark sense of humor. You had soldiers on the streets being searched, cars being pulled over, explosions, people being shot.

At the same time normal life also went on. The TV program sort of reflects that. It’s about a group of teenagers who are just trying to find their way in the world. As the writer Lisa McGee has said, they’re quite ridiculous. There’s five of them, The Derry Girls. 

The show is following their lives through schools, through their families, their extended families, and the scrapes they get into. It became an instant hit. 

It’s the most watched TV program ever in Ireland. Then it went on to Netflix, which is when we got involved and it gathered a sort of cult following around the world.

A Glimpse Behind the Scenes 

I caught wind of this because I’ve got relatives in America and I was visiting and they were sort of questioning me about it and things. This was 2019. I thought it was really interesting that this program, which you have to watch with subtitles if you’re not from Derry, had such a cult following. 

It provides people with education about Northern Ireland and what goes on here. We’ve had people say that to us that they’ve gone off and looked up things that we talk about. 

The podcasts includes a lot of notes when something’s come up in the TV program. We try to take people further for more reading about topics related to the show to do their own behind the scenes research. For example, the ceasefire or when Bill Clinton came to Derry when he was president. 

More information about the politics of it and what was happening during a peace process that lasted for years and ending of conflict. Over the years we’ve got a sense of community that people join us and send us messages. 

We’ve also become sort of nonofficial tour guides. We have found that like more than 50% of our downloads are from the USA. So the podcast is for people who like the program, but you’ll get a bit more from it and you’ll get some other stories. You’ll find out that Derry is actually weirder, more surreal, than it is in the TV program in real life. It’s just as weird. 

Unscripted Fun Commentary 

You sort of have to take us as you find us, really on each episode. We record on a Monday night and we’ll have been sending each other messages about what we should talk about but we talk about what comes to us. 

We’re not scripted. We sort of have a loose direction where we’re gonna go, but that can go in any way at all, depending as if somebody brings something up. Lately we have been out and about, so we go to events. We’ve been involved in hosting some events to do with Derry Girls. I record as we go and we chat to people and put that together. 

That’s sort of taken us in a wee bit of a different direction because this program’s over. It ended after three seasons. There’s 19 episodes of Derry Girls and we have 77.

It’s fun to make. I think if it stopped being fun to make, we would start thinking about, maybe it’s time to wind this down. People have gotten to know about the podcast and we’ve talked about some other programs. We have talked about different aspects of Derry. 

Encouraged by the Creator

It was all down to Lisa McGee, the creator of the program.  There was a year, there was a year between the end of series two and beginning the filming of series three. We thought that we’d try and keep that going by talking to interesting people in Derry as opposed to just behind the scenes on things we saw or knew about the episodes. She came on and said you’ve got to keep going so we did. 

The podcast is a companion to the show. The first 12 episodes of our podcast, we took an episode a week and went into detail. Mary Louise’s father was the mayor of Derry when Bill Clinton came. So she was behind the scenes. There’s lots of things where we have been there that have been maybe in the background or not a big incident in Derry Girls itself, but were massive in real life. There’s layers and layers and layers of Derry Girls. It’s a very funny program, it’s a comedy about five hapless teenagers that think they’re great and can do anything. But if you then start peeling it away, you get. Their parents. You get the families, the friendship, companionship, maybe strange members of the family that people tolerate. There’s religion and politics as well.

In the show they’re sort of in the background, but we sometimes bring them to the foreground.

You can connect with us on our website https://www.thebiglight.com/talkingderrygirls or search the name of our Podcast and it will come up. 

Favorite Episodes 

I have two in mind. My first favorite episode is episode 13. It was after we’d finished going through the 12 episodes in the first two series. Lisa McGee, who wrote and created Derry Girls who’s from Derry, had tweeted that she was obsessed with the podcast.

We decided to ask her to come on. She was our guest on episode 13 and then episode 14, as it turned out. That first episode that she was on, it was amazing. It was like you kept pinching yourself. We were all very giggly to start with. We had to get that out of the way. Then we got down to the how did you make this? What was your process? What influenced you? We gave her a quiz to see what kind of Derry Girl she was.

It was really good and fun, fun, fun. 

She actually said she wished she’d known some of our stories before she’d written the third series. That was very cool. When I’ve listened back to it really opens your eyes to what’s involved in the behind the scenes making of a TV program. 

Launch Party Episode

Episode 35 is another favorite episode. We were invited to the launch of series three.

It happened in Derry. Of course we recorded from the beginning of the day everything happening behind the scenes, right up to the end. We’d been extras in a funeral scene, but we didn’t know who died until we saw it on tv. During the launch we got to see the first two episodes of series three.

We were there with some of the cast and it was really high energy. Being 55 plus, so you know, we were getting a bit tired by the end of the night. There was a party and we went to that for a while. We ended the night lying on this big bed, just chatting about the whole day and about where things were at.

It was lovely. That was a really nice time that we had. I’ve got lots of other favorite bits, but I think those two are kind of special. 

Intended for Mature Audiences 

I think this is one when you want to ignore the little ones for a while, or they’re doing something else and you put the earphones in. There is some language in it because it’s Derry, and Derry has an art form in swearing. So, the program has a lot.

If your child is not old enough to watch Derry Girls, they wouldn’t be old enough to listen to our podcast. We have teenagers listen. We met a young teen who listened and we have grandparents who listen. It’s really multi-generational, a bit like the TV program as well.