00:00I think if I'd have gone and written another kind of straight comedy immediately after Derrygears
00:04I would have felt the pressure of having that compared.
00:08The heaven women are very much where I am in life, as opposed to reflecting back like I was in
00:14Derrygears and remembering.
00:15Do you recognise any of your own IRL friendships and relationships?
00:19I'm not sure what I say something.
00:21Whoa, IRL what?
00:22What?
00:23Oh god, oh dear lord.
00:24Hang on, hang on.
00:25Oh god, cut that, cut that, cut that.
00:26This is a different show.
00:27All of the air just left the room.
00:29For a minute then.
00:30This is Streamline, your weekly guide to what's actually worth watching across TV, film and everything in between.
00:37For any of you currently on your third rewatch of Derry Girls, what if I told you there's another way?
00:42I'm not doing it again, I'm mean it this time.
00:44This week I've been binging How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,
00:47a dark comedy thriller from the creator of your favourite Northern Ireland based sitcom, Lisa McGee.
00:52The show follows three close friends.
00:54Now in their late 30s, they return to Belfast for the wake of the estranged fourth member of their
00:59teenage gang and things get creepy.
01:03They're dragged into a Knives Out style mystery around their friend's death and embark on a
01:07hilarious Irish odyssey to find the truth about their past.
01:11And this cast bring that energy to these characters.
01:14Like you really believe that you're watching a group of friends who've grown up together.
01:17And talking to the cast, Offset was equally unhinged.
01:21Do you recognise any of your own IRL friendships and relationships?
01:25I'm not sure I'm going to say something.
01:27Woah, IRL what?
01:28What?
01:29Oh god, oh dear lord.
01:30Hang on, hang on.
01:31Cut that, cut that, cut that.
01:32This is a different show.
01:33All of the air just left the room.
01:35For a minute then.
01:36When did that chemistry first really click off screen?
01:40Was there a moment in sort of like rehearsals or chemistry workshops and chemistry reads
01:44where you sort of felt like okay yeah we're on to something really special here?
01:47I felt like it was really quite instant.
01:49We all just went in and sat down and and it just felt, it felt, it felt like it worked.
01:55It's like alchemy, it's like magic.
01:56Like you can't, I don't know that you can force or make something like that happen.
02:01Grab a weapon quick.
02:04Ready for a exorcism maybe?
02:06Every time Sinead talks about her two friends from school I get jealous.
02:09I can't, I don't know what you do.
02:11She talks about these girls and I'm like Elaine and Neve.
02:14Elaine and Neve.
02:15Oh Elaine and Neve.
02:15I feel like I know them.
02:16Yeah I will, yeah.
02:18I mean we're funnier.
02:19You know what this, this is a three friend dynamic though
02:21where you never know when the allegiance is going to switch.
02:24No.
02:24And you live in constant fear.
02:26Exactly.
02:26Very true.
02:27Yeah.
02:27They're always picking on me essentially is the thing.
02:29That's not true, that is absolutely not true.
02:31The whole thing's just awful.
02:33She was so young.
02:34I was talking about your outfit.
02:35Are they pyjamas?
02:36They're treasures.
02:37They look like pyjamas.
02:39It's somehow at once very Derry Girls but not at all Derry Girls.
02:43I spoke to creator Lisa McGee about the pressures of following up from such a huge cult classic.
02:47How on earth do you follow a show that has such a huge legacy as that did?
02:52I mean was there like, did you feel pressure or did it feel actually quite liberating doing something
02:57completely different?
02:58I think it did feel liberating and I think that genre switch helped a lot with that.
03:03I think if I'd have gone and written another kind of straight comedy immediately after Derry
03:07Gears I would have felt the pressure of having that compared.
03:11Can you please stop crying in my face for five minutes, James?
03:13I felt like the mystery really helped me out there and I was able to do some,
03:16it shares some of the DNA of Derry Gears.
03:18It's like there's a lot of the same humour.
03:21But yeah, it's a very different, a very different story.
03:23Am I right in thinking this?
03:24You had the idea for this when you were at uni in Belfast.
03:26I was given a flyer by a street preacher with the title on it.
03:31Oh seriously?
03:32Yeah, I wrote a play which was very different, you know like a student play.
03:37But it was about a group of female friends going to a school reunion.
03:40But I always loved the title and I thought I'll hang on to that title.
03:43And now I felt like I got to the stage where I felt like I was the right age to
03:47write this show.
03:48You know, I needed to sort of go through some things maybe.
03:50I love the thought of sort of something, an idea percolating and cooking for quite a long time.
03:57How do you know when a project is done?
04:00And how do you know when to sort of stop freaking about with it and think,
04:02you know what, now is the right time to tell this?
04:04Because it's eight parts.
04:05I was writing it as we were filming even.
04:07So I was changing stuff all the time and rejigging stuff.
04:10Because a mystery is about like putting a big puzzle together and you move one piece
04:15and suddenly it doesn't work.
04:16And so it was really challenging at times,
04:19probably because I come from comedy and Derry Gears has put too many packet about with jokes,
04:24because you're always wanting more in Derry Gears.
04:27And then it was about stripping some of those out and letting the creepier moments breathe a bit
04:30and not kind of undermining them by having someone fall over or whatever.
04:35But so that was a bit of a learning curve for me to figure that out.
04:39Jesus Christ.
04:41What the does he want?
04:43Obviously Sinead, you were in an episode of Derry Girls in season three.
04:47Yeah.
04:47You know, was it hearing Lisa's name that sort of was just like,
04:51yes, I'm in straight away.
04:52I mean, who wasn't aware?
04:53Who didn't watch Derry Girls in?
04:54Yeah.
04:55Lisa had been commissioned to write.
04:57At that point it was with Channel 4, a new comedy.
05:00And I was like, oh, but what's that?
05:03But then a few months later, my agent rang and said,
05:07so Lisa McGee, yes, yes, yes.
05:10I know what you're talking about.
05:12And that was it for me.
05:14I was well in.
05:16For those of you who still have the Derry Girls soundtrack on repeat.
05:19Well, why wouldn't you?
05:21It's wall to wall bangers.
05:22But How To Get To Heaven From Belfast definitely shares this love letter to nostalgic music.
05:27Just swap out the cranberries for Girls Aloud.
05:29So how much did the music feature on set?
05:32I think it's in the first episode.
05:34So you've seen it where we where we go on the batter and we're we're dancing.
05:39It was Sean Paul.
05:40Yeah, like on the day.
05:43We'd had a rehearsal.
05:44We'd had a dance rehearsal where Lisa had kind of scrolled through the bangers of the time.
05:48We had some Mystique.
05:49We had some.
05:50Mystique.
05:50We're as allowed, Spice Girls.
05:52Five Bewitched.
05:54You never really know how it's going to come together in the edit.
05:56Because there are scenes where it's like serious as a heart attack,
05:59but then like Girls Aloud will stop playing.
06:01Yeah.
06:01So how aware are you of that while filming that some.
06:05Nothing.
06:06So you just you play it serious and then.
06:08You play it how it's how it's done and then you go in to do ADR
06:10and suddenly Jerry Halliwell or somebody comes on and you're going,
06:13Oh my God, did you get this?
06:14You got this.
06:15We're using this.
06:16This has got to be the music.
06:17And they're like, yeah, and you're like.
06:19All eight episodes of this drop on Netflix on the 12th of February.
06:22This would be a Leslie Knope approved way to spend Galentine's
06:26or an easy excuse to get out of grim Valentine's plans.
06:29Either way, please binge responsibly.
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