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15th Dec 2019

Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee discusses the growing romance between Erin and James

Paul Moore

Erin James romance Derry Girls

What every Derry Girls fan wants to see in Season 3.

In terms of the standout TV moments of 2019, we’d argue that Season 2 of Derry Girls provided plenty of strong contenders.

Truth be told, the Protestant vs Catholics chalkboard sequence was absolutely inspired, but we also loved Gerry’s (Tommy Tiernan) little smile of pride when he noticed that Erin and the gang actually did sneak off to see Take That.

Aside from this, James saying “I’m a Derry girl” at the end of the season, only to have some random voice in the background immediately say “you’re a fucking prick, that’s what you are,” is massively underrated.

You might be spotting a recurring theme here.

All of these scenes combine laugh out loud comedy with an undercurrent of genuine heart and truth. That’s what Derry Girls does so brilliantly.

Well, another example of Lisa McGee’s comedy pulling at your heartstrings was when James did his best Ross Geller impression by saving the day and Erin’s hopes for going to the prom.

Aside from being a lovely moment between the two characters, that scene was one of those lovely moments when everything comes together.

Scarlet’s ‘Independent Love Song’ is an absolute banger, the script was perfect, and the duo of Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Dylan Llewellyn judged their performances perfectly.

Anyway, after that episode aired, plenty of people thought that there was a little spark between ‘the wee English fella’ and Erin.

Well, the extremely-sound Lisa McGee joined Jarlath Regan (another person that’s very sound) for the most recent episode of his wonderful podcast, An Irishman Abroad.

Naturally, the topic of conversation switched to Season 3 of Derry Girls and McGee was asked about the potential romance between James and Erin.

“That’s really interesting. See, I do a character breakdown before I start writing the scripts – which I always do. I write about each character in some detail, you know, about who everyone is. It was always going to be that they got together, James and Erin. But then, when we cast the two roles, they were so good as friends that I decided I’m not sure if I want to do that right now, or ever (get them together). They just works so well as mates that it kind of shifted. Now, whenever everyone is asking if they’re ever going to get together, it’s like “they were at one point, I don’t really know anymore,” said McGee.

What about the fear that bringing in the romantic angle might disrupt the group dynamic of the Derry Girls ? (FYI, James is definitely a Derry girl!)

“I’d never want to do that. Particularly because our show isn’t serial in that way, as well. Once you introduce that (romantic plot), it can’t just be undersold. Friends had to do that as well. There starts to be episode hooks that feed solely into these relationships, and I don’t to only ever do that because I just like starting from zero with every episode. Like, thinking to myself ‘what’s the scrape for this week’ So yeah, I don’t know is the answer,” said McGee jokingly.

In terms of he whole podcast, it’s a fascinating listen as it covers a plethora of topics like: the influence that Friends had on her work (57:00), why she was more afraid of the nuns than the soldiers growing up in Derry (47:00), and the process of finding the dream team of actors for the Derry Girls characters (53:00).

McGee’s recent comments echo a similar conversation that she had with JOE before the Season 2 finale aired.

During our chat with the writer/creator of Derry Girls, she also said that romance could develop between the pair.

“I think that I’ve always had a feeling that there might be something between James and Erin. I think though that it might not develop until they’re older, you might never see it. I think a reason why James puts up with so much is because of Erin. You know, that’s just my thinking. I don’t know how much of that we’ll see, or where that will go,” said McGee.

You can listen to the whole episode of An Irishman Abroad below.

 

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Topics:

Derry Girls,TV