Derry Girls review: Final episode has surprise cameo

Channel 4 aired the final episode of comedy series Derry Girls and it was an absolute cracker.
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Again Derry Girls shows you can combine comedy with real life events without losing the weight of the moment.

The Agreement is one year on from episode six and centres on Orla and Erin’s 18th birthday party celebration and The Good Friday Agreement referendum. It interweaves scenes of the girls getting ready for the party and Granda Joe and others trying to make sense of the document they have been given about the vote.

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It’s something I’m sure people at the time wrestled with, feeling the weight of the decision they were about to make and worrying about making the wrong one, but as Granda Joe says ‘what if you make the right one,’ ‘what if this all becomes a ghost story you tell your wains one day’.

(L-R)Orla Mccool (Louisa Clare Harland), (James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn), DEIRDRE MALLON (Amelia Crowley),Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan) , Sarah Mccool (Kathy Kiera Clarke),Erin Quinn (Saoirse Monica Jackson), Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), Mary Quinn (Tara Lynne O’Neill), Gerry Quinn (Tommy Tiernan), Cara (Darcey McNeeley), Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney), Gerladine Devlin (Philippa Dunne)(L-R)Orla Mccool (Louisa Clare Harland), (James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn), DEIRDRE MALLON (Amelia Crowley),Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan) , Sarah Mccool (Kathy Kiera Clarke),Erin Quinn (Saoirse Monica Jackson), Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), Mary Quinn (Tara Lynne O’Neill), Gerry Quinn (Tommy Tiernan), Cara (Darcey McNeeley), Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney), Gerladine Devlin (Philippa Dunne)
(L-R)Orla Mccool (Louisa Clare Harland), (James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn), DEIRDRE MALLON (Amelia Crowley),Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan) , Sarah Mccool (Kathy Kiera Clarke),Erin Quinn (Saoirse Monica Jackson), Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), Mary Quinn (Tara Lynne O’Neill), Gerry Quinn (Tommy Tiernan), Cara (Darcey McNeeley), Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney), Gerladine Devlin (Philippa Dunne)

To be honest when the episode started I was welling up as it provided a flashback of what has happened over the last three series ending with the poignant moment at the end of the last episode of Clare’s dad’s funeral.

We then discover that Michelle now works in the shop with Dennis and Clare and her ma have moved away from Derry as it was too painful to stay after the death of Clare’s father, I assume another move because actress Nicola Coughlan had a scheduling conflict with Bridgerton while filming the last series of Derry Girls.

Erin and Orla’s party is somewhat overshadowed by Jenny Joyce having her own party on the same day and the girls having to share the hall with a first communion.

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In the course of the episode Erin and Michelle fall out, as part of the Good Friday Agreement prisoners during The Troubles would be released, and we discover that this includes Michelle’s brother Niall who killed a man.

This episode shows how brilliant the writers of Derry Girls are, the troubles many people in Northern Ireland had to live with and the magnitude they must have felt when going to vote in the referendum.

In the end Clare sabotages Jenny’s party, the girls make up and it ends with the vote.

James interviews Erin in the final moments asking what it feels like to be an adult, and her monologue is poignant and beautiful. Encapsulating everything we have all felt when we turn 18 and everyone expects us to know what we are doing with our lives.

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She said: ‘If our dreams get broken along the way we will make new ones from the broken pieces.’

I did wonder at the end if James and Erin got together and thought this would be answered when the screen said Present Day – New York. Questions running through my head, who moved to New York? Was it Erin? Is James with her?

But in terms of celebrity cameos they saved one of the best until last - Chelsea Clinton, who finally received the letter from series two.

It was a perfect end to a truly perfect show.

The current series and series one and two can be found on All4

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