It’s been a long three years, but Derry Girls is finally back on our screens.
Lisa McGee’s phenomenal sitcom has made stars of its previously unknown cast, and for good reason.
The past two series has seen Clare, Erin, Michelle, Orla and James essentially become household names across Ireland, the UK and far beyond.
On Tuesday, the first episode of the long-awaited third and final series aired with The Night Before, where audiences meet up with the girls as they anxiously await the results of their GCSEs.
They go to rent a video (How very 90s) to distract themselves from the nerves, and end up meeting Sister Michael, who suggests she’s seen their results and they’ve all failed.
And so, because it’s them, they break into their school to look for themselves, and end up assisting a burglary.
Being three years out of practice, audiences may have forgiven a slightly juddery first episode as the writers and cast get back into the swing of things, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.
Series three started out as almost a parallel to the pilot episode: a voiceover from Erin attempting to sound deep; the teenagers getting roared out of it by Dennis in a shop; Sister Michael being, well, Sister Michael.
There were two major highlights to the premiere: one obviously being the brilliant cameo from Liam Neeson, who played an exasperated RUC detective (just how did they keep that under wraps?!).
The second, and arguably even better, was the return of Uncle Colm, somehow both the most boring and hilarious man in the world.
Watching the girls use Colm’s incredibly tedious demeanor as a weapon – particularly seeing Michelle lean against him with a ‘gotcha’ look as she faced the police – proves that creator Lisa knows exactly how to utilise her characters to bring out the absolute best in them.