Channel 4’s brand new comedy Derry Girls is starting tonight, so it is.

Set in 1990s Derry in the run-up to the ceasefire, Derry Girls promises to be a one-of-a-kind show that many viewers in the North West will relate to. Tune in tonight (Thursday) at 10pm to see the craic.

Derry Girls. Image: Channel 4

It’s based on the experiences of writer Lisa McGee, who shares her story through the eyes of a local teenager. 16-year old Erin and her friends live through the everyday reality of armed police in armoured Land Rovers, British Army checkpoints and ‘peace’ walls.

While The Troubles may hang over her hometown, Erin has troubles of her own. She struggles with love, family, school, friendships, enemies and all the ordinary teenage issues, they just happen to be all occurring in extraordinary times.

Check out a wee preview here:

Starring Saoirse Monica Jackson as Erin, Tara Lynne O’Neill as her mother and comedian Tommy Tiernan, there are going to be plenty of laughs and Derry slang throughout the six episodes.

Lisa McGee, who grew up in Derry in the Nineties, said: “Anything set during the Troubles tends to be a bit grim and bleak, but that just wasn’t my experience of Derry as a child and a teenager, it was a joyful place.

“I’d like to celebrate that. It was also hugely matriarchal, so I was keen we have a large and varied cast of female characters. There were other things going on in Northern Ireland at that time, there were other stories, I’m excited to have the opportunity to tell some of them.”