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2:18

So, show me how that... Hello human people, welcome

2:20

to the Mac Belfer. Please

2:25

welcome on. We have had our political

2:27

for 999 days. It's Richard Herring. How

2:29

lovely I can see you all. Hello.

2:37

Hello Belfer. Oh, I'm

2:39

so happy to be here. I'm so happy to

2:41

be here. How

2:44

lovely I can see you all. Hello.

2:47

Hello Belfer. Oh, lovely to be back.

2:50

Thank you very much for coming along

2:52

to see the show. Welcome to Richard

2:55

Herring's Little Stiff Toes podcast. That

2:58

was the original name of Stiff Little Fingers.

3:00

That's sort of the

3:02

old from the young. Belfast

3:07

Band. Punk Band. They're nice,

3:09

isn't it? Little Stiff Toes are nicer than Stiff Little...

3:11

I think there was something rude about Stiff Little. Things

3:13

that never worked out. But I

3:15

was temping bowling at W5 today. And

3:19

the... Some pretty

3:21

cool. And the cast

3:23

of Game of Thrones was up on the next lane. They're

3:26

still hanging around just in case. And

3:30

Joffrey calls it Rallist. I said, I

3:32

don't know if that's... Joffrey,

3:34

mind you, he can't even pronounce Joffrey properly. So

3:36

who knows? I

3:39

had quite... Don't

3:41

know if the funny thing happened to me on

3:43

the way to the gig. It's been quite a

3:45

journey to get here. Because I came from Hertfordshire.

3:48

And which is not near to Belfast. We

3:51

went through airport security at Luton Airport, the

3:53

finest airport. I'm sure

3:55

you'll all agree that you can go to. And

3:58

I was buzzed. through you

4:00

know like it goes this little traffic light system your

4:02

case comes down there's a traffic light wait for the

4:04

traffic light and then the traffic light goes yellow already

4:06

it goes to a different thing and so that my

4:09

my journey through was delayed the

4:11

guy I've got this bring back with loads

4:14

of pockets and I thought I'd empty everything up but I've got

4:16

an iPad and some sun cream in the back right so then

4:18

it went back and then it came

4:20

through again and it went and

4:22

it got to the bit and it went the other way

4:24

again it went through again the guy came through and he

4:26

looks through everything he said have you got a vape in

4:28

there looks like there's a vape in there said there's

4:31

not a vape in there he took loads of stuff out put

4:33

it put it all back in went through the

4:35

third time third time it

4:38

went back to I had to go to the man again

4:40

by this stage you couldn't find what what was wrong he

4:42

said I'm gone

4:46

and just in the dressing room I found an

4:48

extra pocket the inside one of the other pockets

4:50

with a massive deodorant in it which was used

4:52

I just needed one as well but what I'm

4:54

saying to any terrorists out there if

4:57

you've hidden it quite well just wait that by the third

4:59

time they just go go through and we can't find it

5:01

you can go it's there something

5:03

on the x-ray but it goes we can't

5:06

find it little tip for the terrorists out

5:08

there not that you

5:10

guys need any help so um I

5:17

look you know I hate to see as

5:19

a city divided amongst itself

5:21

and whenever I travel I do try

5:23

to solve solve

5:26

the world's problems I think

5:29

you guys you know I know you're in conflict but why

5:32

don't you just look for a thing that you

5:34

all have in common just try and concentrate on that

5:36

for example I think a lot of you here are

5:38

Christians so why don't you what do

5:41

you just focus on that I think

5:46

that could solve it and

5:49

I do have to thank the city of

5:51

Belfast at behalf of you anyway because it

5:53

is my birthday on 12th of July and

5:55

I am I love I

5:57

love the effort you put in for me I just When

6:01

I was a kid, when I was about

6:03

9 or 10, orange was my favorite color,

6:05

right? It was. I liked orange through pastels

6:07

and stuff, but I prefer

6:09

blue now if I'm honest. I love

6:11

the fact you kind of hold on to the

6:14

past, but maybe let some of the past,

6:16

when you know so many years have passed,

6:18

maybe it's time to let things go. I don't know, that's

6:21

all I would say. You know, I used to like banging

6:23

drums and wearing bowler hats

6:25

and aggravating my neighbors, but I've changed.

6:28

I've changed, so you know, let's move with

6:30

the times. So

6:33

long ago, what you are doing that

6:35

for, it's absolutely pathetic. William

6:42

of orange, Jesus. You

6:44

pricks, right, um, let's um... But,

6:48

and so are the Catholics, so it's fine, so

6:50

fine. Jesus

6:52

even longer going, that's not true either, so there we

6:54

go, it's all good. We're all

6:57

happy, look, we're gonna... Oh, look, how dare

6:59

I, how dare I come and try

7:01

and come and come the situation when

7:04

I have a fantastic guest you who

7:06

has done that and more to promote

7:08

and explain what's going on in Northern

7:10

Ireland than anyone else, I think. She's

7:13

probably best known for being the writer of

7:15

two episodes of Totally Frank. That is what

7:17

we're gonna be... That is

7:19

what we're gonna be talking about exclusively tonight. I know

7:21

there's a lot of Totally Frank fans in. Will

7:25

you please welcome the incredible genius, Lisa De

7:27

Gea, ladies and gentlemen. CHEERING Come

7:33

in, look, I'm gorgeous. Am I

7:35

allowed to say that? I

7:37

don't know if I'm allowed to say that. You

7:39

look gorgeous, am I allowed to say that anymore? I don't

7:41

know, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. Oh,

7:43

definitely, yeah. OK, good. I

7:46

don't know what... What can you... You've got to... I've done what you

7:49

can do. Lovely to

7:51

see you, Lisa. Thank you very much for coming to

7:53

my show. Thanks for inviting me. What's

7:57

your memories of writing on

7:59

Totally Frank? I can't remember. No, okay. Do

8:02

you remember what it was? It was like, it was

8:04

good. It was my first TV credit. Right. I

8:07

think maybe 2006, 2007 maybe. Yeah,

8:11

it was about, I remember what it was about. It was

8:13

about a band, a air band. And

8:17

they had real songs that they tried to release,

8:19

I think. Is it a bit like Girls

8:21

5, have you seen Girls 5 Ever? No. Oh,

8:24

it's a good show. I bet I'd like it,

8:26

yeah. It really is. It

8:29

was a great one fan-in for Girls 5

8:31

Ever. But do watch

8:33

it. I think you'll enjoy it. It's

8:36

the best sitcom I've seen in the

8:39

last five to ten years. That's

8:44

not true. Well,

8:46

look, there's so much to talk to you about. I

8:48

am quite, what I want to start with, and you have talked

8:50

about this in interviews before, the

8:53

first dance at your wedding was

8:55

to the theme tune from Murder She Wrote.

8:57

Yes. That's

9:00

right. And I honed in on that. I'm very excited about this.

9:02

You're a big fan of Jessica Fletcher. Massive.

9:05

Do you like Murder She Wrote? I

9:07

don't, I think it's a bit shit. I

9:10

like, I like, I

9:13

like Diagnosis Murder, which is a pretty, is a classier show,

9:15

I think. No, I never under that. If you're going to

9:17

go for that. No, I know

9:19

what it is, yeah, but it wasn't as good as Murder She

9:21

Wrote. Did Angela Lansbury put her own children

9:23

in Murder She Wrote? No, she did not.

9:27

That's what Dick Van Dyke did. Oh, did they?

9:29

Yeah, did Barry Van Dyke's, that Barry Van Dyke

9:31

plays the romantic lead. Oh, that's right, yes, yes,

9:33

yes. And all the Van Dyke's turn up in

9:35

it. Oh, amazing. And Charchy from

9:37

Happy Days, isn't it, before he went mental? It's

9:40

got everything. Yeah, it was too medically

9:42

for me. I

9:44

like a pure, like more, just concentrate

9:47

on the murders. Yeah. Sort

9:49

of showing off because they could do all the

9:51

medical stuff. Yeah, they can cure people as well

9:53

as solve the mystery stone. You're right, it is

9:55

showing off. Yeah. What?

10:00

Pitch, her to

10:02

me, Jessica Fletcher, what do you like about her?

10:05

I love that she

10:07

seems to have a great life. And

10:09

she's like really, she's a really successful writer

10:11

that doesn't seem to do any work. I

10:13

like that. And

10:16

she has a class, and

10:18

she, like, she,

10:24

it's really weird, but her husband sort of,

10:26

they obviously had a very happy marriage, but

10:28

then he passed away conveniently. And

10:30

then she just like rocks around, solves and

10:32

crime, she has a wee bite. It

10:35

just seems great. I

10:38

saw the Haunting in Venice

10:40

or whatever it's called, the latest Agatha Christie. But

10:43

it's like, what happens a lot as a writer

10:45

and as writers, we shouldn't like this. It

10:47

sort of implies that there's a writer character

10:49

who's obviously like Agatha Christie, like Agatha Christie

10:51

in that one. But it sort of implies

10:53

that writers can't think of any plots and

10:55

so have to make, go and see things

10:57

happening, which they'll then write down.

10:59

Yeah. Which I think is

11:02

writings a bit tougher than that. Totally. But

11:04

it's better both, isn't it? Like you do state

11:06

stuff from real life. You don't sort

11:09

of set up murders and stuff. No, of

11:11

course. Yeah,

11:13

yeah. Do you? No. That

11:16

would be a good. That would be a good.

11:18

It seems like a lot of effort. It

11:21

is a lot of effort. Good. Well,

11:23

I'm glad. I'm delighted that you, my first

11:25

dance, my wedding to my

11:27

current wife was

11:30

Girl From Us because my

11:33

wife's like an alien. I

11:36

mean, she's attracted to me. I

11:38

don't know why she seems otherwise a quite normal person. But

11:41

yeah, it was fun. It's

11:43

important that first dance. Have

11:45

you got a video of you dancing to your first dance? I

11:48

can't remember. No. No.

11:50

Like we weren't even going to do one, but then we thought

11:53

that would be funny. It's the only reason we'd other the thing.

11:55

Did you have it all choreographed? Not

11:58

really, but we started it with Titanic. And

12:00

everybody was like, oh, for God's sake, you

12:02

know, like Celine Dion. But then it sort of

12:05

went on the, the murder show thing. Oh, wow.

12:07

Yeah. I like it. Um,

12:10

so, uh, look, I mean, it's

12:12

glib to say, I feel I

12:14

know all about your teenage years.

12:17

Yeah. Um, for

12:19

the very thing I've just said, that like, then I'm

12:22

suddenly saying, right, it's gonna make stuff up. But I

12:24

think that you've just written down everything you did. Yeah.

12:29

Are you, is it a bit like you or

12:31

is it not really like you both? Yeah. I

12:34

think like, I would say loosely

12:36

inspired by my teenage years,

12:38

my family, um, my

12:40

friends, but like anything you took

12:42

the butts that are going to work and stick them

12:44

together and make and pull a character this

12:47

way or that way or a situation

12:50

like a lot of the, the very first ideas

12:52

might be real, but then you push it so

12:54

far and they're burning down a chip shop or whatever,

12:56

you know, because it needs to, every

12:59

episode needs to have a pickle. I call it like

13:02

what's the big pickle of each episode and you push

13:04

that as far as you can. So

13:06

we done like, there was no killing nuns

13:08

or anything. Like, you know, we

13:10

might've been under tension type of thing. Yeah.

13:13

I mean, what's, I mean, there's so many things that we'll

13:15

talk about. There he goes. Now we're going to talk about

13:17

it straight away, but let's talk about it straight away.

13:19

Um, and then talk about nothing else. Um, I'm a, I'm

13:22

a massive fan of it. And I think just the,

13:24

I mean, the writing is so fantastic, but the characters

13:26

are so amazing. And it would be just, it

13:29

would sort of be impossible that all of those people

13:31

were real and all together because it's so well put

13:33

together. But

13:36

what I love about it is there's not

13:38

really any character in there that

13:40

you don't like or that

13:42

you don't care about or that you don't actually

13:44

feel for, which I think is quite,

13:46

you know, most people in is it complete in like

13:49

a baddie. Yeah. Oh, that's lovely. I

13:52

think you don't want to, you don't want to have eat the butt

13:54

where everybody makes the cup of tea. Yeah. You

13:57

know, I hear this, but you know, I never wanted

13:59

that. I really tried to make

14:02

everyone have a thing that was funny in its

14:04

own right. And

14:06

I think that that was just a good... Yeah,

14:10

it was just a good principle really because it just might have

14:12

got more jokes as well. Yes. If you

14:14

really thought about everybody. Yeah. Everyone has

14:16

their mind, the like your actor there, Sukhom.

14:19

Do you know what I mean? Like Uncle Colin could

14:21

have a different Sukhom. Yeah, he's definitely

14:23

good and should. And

14:25

must. But

14:29

it is, you know, it is. I mean, the gang

14:31

are fantastic and it's such a well-balanced gang, but it

14:33

is literally every person who comes in,

14:35

you just feel affection for them. And, you

14:37

know, I know it wasn't your original intention

14:39

to set it in the 90s, right? You

14:42

were going to make it current. No, I was

14:44

going to try and make it modern. Yeah, contemporary.

14:46

Yeah, but, yeah, that

14:48

felt wrong for loads of reasons. I

14:50

never wrote, I never attempted the contemporary

14:52

version because by the time I've

14:55

gone to script, we discussed it and I decided

14:57

to give that a crack. And it just worked.

15:00

It felt very natural. And it actually

15:02

felt like I had a, I

15:05

said there's a lot I avoided writing about the troubles

15:07

and I was so bored. It

15:09

was our whole lives and it was everywhere. And

15:13

I thought, I remember saying to myself when I was a teenager, I'll

15:16

never write about that. But

15:18

the amount of the data started, there was

15:20

lots of how to say, you know, I

15:23

found lots of stuff

15:25

that I felt was really

15:27

stupid at the time or, you know, funny.

15:31

Yeah, well, you know, but it's very much

15:33

in the background, is it? And then we'll

15:35

suddenly spring to the foreground. But you forget

15:37

about it. It's about families, about adolescents. It's

15:40

about being in this unusual situation. But

15:42

I guess, you know, things like the

15:45

bomb on the bridge and not being able

15:47

to get across and get the panning done.

15:50

It just makes it so human and real.

15:54

That feels like one

15:56

of the least surreal jokes on it, you know what I

15:58

mean? I remember. I remember

16:00

people getting very, it became just a nuisance.

16:05

Yeah, I remember being in a, I've

16:08

spoken about this before, Choea being in a queue for a shop.

16:10

This is my mom when I was young

16:13

and there was a bomb scare and she just had all the

16:15

shit to do and she was trying to get their stuff

16:17

wrong through before we got, like

16:19

it was, you know, just

16:22

was that day to day. Yeah, I

16:24

mean, as I said, I think it's,

16:26

you know, for most people in England,

16:28

I think certainly maybe most

16:31

of the mainland, it's, you

16:34

know, they don't know about what

16:36

was going on in Northern Ireland, I think. So I feel

16:38

this is more educational than anything

16:40

that's put out in England, I think, for

16:43

the English people and it really brings home

16:45

what it means. I'm sort

16:47

of trying to imagine what it means. I mean, these

16:49

people will be able to tell me, I suppose, but

16:51

what it means, it must mean so much more for

16:53

the people here. Well,

16:56

I get a lot of lovely

16:58

feedback about it and it's great because the one thing

17:01

about people from here, and I love being from here

17:03

and I love here, they don't hold

17:05

back if they don't like something. And,

17:07

you know, you would really, they'd

17:09

be pissed off. So I know you were taking

17:11

a risk writing it because, yeah,

17:15

I don't money. It's

17:17

a big responsibility, I guess, as well. And

17:19

I don't think there'd really been a

17:22

sitcom like that about that

17:24

time before. I

17:26

don't know, it just, yeah, there's a

17:28

lot of, and now there's a lot of love for

17:30

it, which is amazing. Yeah, no,

17:33

I'm sure. And it's, you know, it is that, I

17:35

mean, it's finding, I think with

17:37

comedy, when you can find

17:39

like a serious situation, even a deadly

17:41

situation, even a tragic situation and still

17:44

find the laughs around it without laughing,

17:47

you know, it's not as often people get upset

17:49

about comedy thinking you're joking about something

17:51

grave, but it really isn't that. It's

17:53

finding the life and the humanity around

17:56

this, you know. And it's the lane you

17:58

walk, isn't it? It's how you do that. And

18:00

I think it's really about, and

18:04

I learned this as I was

18:06

writing, I think comedy,

18:09

sitcoms, it's about a group of people you

18:11

want to be with, go through

18:13

things with, you know. And

18:16

that you start, and it's why when

18:18

people say it, they're usually educated about

18:20

certain elements of Northern Irish history. It's

18:23

because it can't be preachy. You'll

18:25

remember something that's funny, you know.

18:28

And I think before, a lot of

18:31

it had just been people shouting at each other on the

18:33

same face, you know. Yeah. I

18:35

do. Well, I'm generally thinking that this is

18:37

the kind of, I'm sure some history teachers and lazy ones just

18:40

put it on to the class. But

18:43

they absolutely should because, you know, because it

18:45

is, comedy is a great way to, you

18:48

know, you remember things, you know, you remember all

18:50

the things that happened in this and all the,

18:52

you know, and, but equally it gives you that

18:54

human element. And

18:57

I think even if it wasn't

18:59

set in

19:02

the story of the characters and

19:04

the fact that it's about the stupidity

19:07

of adolescence rather than about

19:09

sexy 16 year old, you know.

19:11

I really don't want to do that. I

19:14

hate that. And I really am

19:16

allergic to that. And

19:20

also that another thing was that boys

19:22

were always the one having the fun. It's

19:24

like, it was always, there was always a

19:26

sort of you like teenage boys are so

19:28

crazy and funny and the girls are always

19:31

the one pulling them on the line or

19:33

they never got any of the big gags on.

19:36

And my experience, I went to a convent school very

19:38

much like the one on the show and they were

19:40

the funniest people I ever knew. It was all our

19:42

girls and they were just the rudest. And

19:46

I hadn't really seen that either. And

19:48

I just felt like I

19:50

wanted that. I remember sending

19:52

my producers like our girls are going to be

19:54

the ones that get to do all the

19:57

jokes and all the bad things and get under trouble. So

20:00

I think it was a lot of that. I think a lot of

20:02

women responded to it because they saw their, no matter where they're from,

20:04

they saw their friends, you know. Yeah,

20:07

I know. And again, I think even

20:09

the the convent thing is that, you

20:11

know, that's got in drama and, you

20:13

know, it's got such a sort of

20:15

bad rap. It's always, it's always all

20:17

bad nuns, you know, burying babies in

20:19

the back garden. And

20:26

I'm glad we can laugh about it now. Yeah,

20:30

but it is, you know, George

20:33

Michael is, you know, is, you

20:35

know, an interesting character, but you

20:37

definitely are on her side. Well, I think, you

20:39

know, of course there is all that. And

20:41

I'm not a fan of a lot of

20:43

it. But there was this all our sides,

20:46

the school I went to, where they really cared

20:48

about your education. They really, you know, working class

20:50

girls, they were trying to get them, they

20:53

were trying to push them over that line

20:55

and make them career women. And, you know, so

20:58

I think they, they really, really give

21:00

a shit about us as well. So I

21:02

also had affection for some

21:04

of, I thought they were awful at the time,

21:07

but, you know, I

21:09

don't have that affection for them looking back. And

21:11

you just go, God, they were just

21:13

trying to give us, you know,

21:15

to pass these exams to get them to university,

21:17

you know. Yeah. And it's the second

21:19

sitcom with a character called George Michael in

21:22

it, but she's the rest of development as

21:24

well. She's another very good sitcom. So that

21:26

is the, that is my tip for

21:29

writing a good sitcom. Yeah.

21:35

Well, look, it's had so many accolades.

21:37

I'm not, the mural is amazing, of

21:39

course, that you've talked about. So there's,

21:41

you know, I have all these incredible

21:44

and sometimes partisan, shall we say,

21:46

murals around, sometimes,

21:48

sometimes they're quite political. Yeah. I

21:52

would, I'd go as far as saying, so to have,

21:54

to have the cast up

21:56

on there is such, I mean, again, in it's

21:58

such the spirit of the. the program

22:00

and it's very cool like yeah

22:03

where it doesn't area as well

22:05

it's bang in the

22:07

center of the time so the idea that

22:09

when it always takes me by surprise and

22:12

you just walk in three and there's just

22:14

these five Egypt you know just there and

22:17

I it is just it's just

22:19

lovely yeah and you've been

22:21

on the Simpsons yes that

22:23

was the most exciting thing for me I can

22:27

believe that yeah so what what what's

22:29

the sort of reference rather than yeah

22:32

it's it's what they did they called an ice cream

22:34

parlor derry-gears ice cream but on

22:36

site the uniforms that are unify

22:39

our school uniform as well right

22:41

and I'm then talking

22:44

to the writers and they were saying that

22:46

they all watch it and they're all that

22:48

I was just blown away by that I

22:50

just could not believe that happened you're gonna

22:52

get a cameo in the future series you

22:54

did stop like wanted to be an actor

23:01

though right when you went to when

23:03

you went to yeah I don't go

23:05

to JAMA school I wouldn't have got

23:07

under JAMA school I went to Queens

23:09

University and I

23:12

wanted to be an actor I guess in that way

23:14

that that was what you know people that was the

23:16

thing you kind of knew about like so bad like

23:19

like famously

23:22

bad at Queens if I should an actor

23:25

I was I always loved writing though and

23:27

I was doing that at the same time

23:29

so that thank God there was

23:31

something else I could do because yeah and so

23:33

you came out there went to work

23:36

to the National Theatre almost instantaneously it seems

23:38

is that is that correct it feels like

23:40

that now but yeah there were those couple of

23:42

years when you leave University where you just think

23:45

oh my god like what am I doing with my

23:47

life but um and that

23:49

feels like when you're that young that

23:51

feels like centuries yeah but yeah look

23:54

when you when you see it

23:56

written back on paper whatever you go that's

23:58

it's quite lucky quick and yarn

24:01

at walls, all those things as well. So

24:03

I went over and did an attachment there,

24:05

this brilliant, I don't know if they

24:07

still do it, where they give

24:09

you an office, give you a wage and let

24:14

you write and you don't even have to write for them. Amazing.

24:17

Like, I'm so for

24:20

me someone that definitely there was no backup

24:22

money. My parents were like

24:26

very much get a job. It was

24:28

just a brilliant way to be able to

24:30

do the brilliant start

24:32

for me. Yeah. And was that

24:35

where you saw, were you thinking I want

24:37

to move to TV or were you thinking

24:39

I want to be a very big... There

24:42

was no plan. What happened was I

24:44

was writing plays again because I

24:46

did a theatre degree. That's

24:48

what I knew, that's what you did. We'd had

24:51

a wee theatre company. We were

24:53

putting on plays and pubs and things like

24:55

that. I got the attachment at the national.

24:57

Around that time I got an agent and

24:59

I started getting TV work and started getting

25:01

paid. And that was that.

25:04

Because theatre

25:06

doesn't pay, you know, and if you're, you

25:09

know, you have... I know, well, when I've written

25:11

plays they really don't pay. They

25:14

go in very... My last play lost

25:16

£45,000. So that's... That was a pleasure.

25:19

That was a pleasure to

25:23

write. And you know,

25:25

it doesn't feel it so much from your

25:27

CV. But it is a struggle as a

25:29

writer. And, you know, to go through these

25:31

various jobs that you're writing on other people's

25:33

ideas and coming in writing a couple of

25:35

scripts on other people's ideas and then having

25:38

your own ideas and trying to get those

25:40

commissioned. I mean, we talked a little bit

25:42

backstage about this, but I've always found it,

25:44

you know, I've got like a foot in the

25:47

door and people will see me and often

25:49

pay me to write something. But then, you

25:51

know, it's a long time since something fell off. It's

25:54

so hard. Yeah, yeah. And it's just... It's a

25:56

whole... I think the writing on all our people's stuff

25:58

was very good for me and also just... wasn't a

26:00

choice. I had

26:02

to do it. But I did learn a lot

26:04

from all the writers and yeah, it

26:07

was just a good way to write in different

26:09

genres and because

26:12

you write on a vampire thing

26:14

or writing about the chitters

26:17

or whatever it does. I can't even remember, but

26:19

you know, like a period thing or whatever. And

26:21

then I just

26:24

think it's good to write in different voices and to try

26:26

them out and all that as well. So it was, even

26:29

though that again, there was no plan. It really

26:31

helped me. Yeah. And

26:33

so you wrote on Being Human, which you talked about there,

26:35

which was a lot of ghosts.

26:38

I loved that. Imagine ghosts being a

26:40

successful sitcom. That could never work. But

26:42

I remember it. It was a, you

26:44

know, interesting show, funny show with... Yeah,

26:46

it was great. It had that weird,

26:49

there was a knowledge show at the time called Misfits, which

26:52

had a similar tone where it was

26:54

just a very kind of British

26:57

show, I guess. Like it was the

26:59

vampires arguing over who made the

27:01

tea last kind of thing. So yeah, I

27:05

loved that show. And you

27:07

could do little standalone episodes

27:10

of it and things. And again, I had no

27:13

interest in that kind of genre. It

27:15

was the comedy that I loved about

27:18

that show and that's why I wanted to work on it. Yeah.

27:21

And so when did you start pitching

27:23

your own ideas? Early,

27:27

I had a show about a kitchen,

27:30

about a restaurant in Dublin. And that ran for five

27:35

years. But

27:38

that wasn't really my idea. That was

27:40

someone else had written a film called Kitchen

27:43

and they wanted to do a TV show, but the

27:46

TV show was completely different. So I took

27:48

over the lead

27:50

writer and that was

27:52

set in Dublin for RTE. So that was my own, but I

27:56

always did the aller stuff alongside

27:59

it. I was doing Being Human as

28:01

well. Right. Because

28:04

I just think it's like you're saying you have to

28:06

line stuff up. Because

28:09

stuff doesn't come back and you know... Yeah, well

28:11

it's a tough, you know, being a writer and

28:14

being only a writer I think. As

28:16

a comedian and you know I do bits

28:18

and pieces of other sort of shows

28:21

and sometimes acting and sometimes panel shows or

28:23

whatever. So you know I can do my

28:25

own stand-up shows if I need to go

28:27

out to make some money. So if

28:30

you're just writing it's that sort

28:32

of lonely,

28:35

thankless, especially when

28:37

you're just creating stuff and it's not

28:39

necessarily going on. It's

28:41

such a psychologically quite difficult thing to get through.

28:43

You were young right? You were still young when

28:45

you were young. Yeah, I was very... Again I

28:47

thought I was like behind, you know. But

28:52

I was young and I was very,

28:54

very, very lucky. I

28:58

feel a bit worried about the talent comments

29:00

right now. There were a

29:02

lot of chances I think

29:05

and it seems to be getting... I

29:07

mean you know there's more opportunities in the

29:09

knowledge sense. There's more TV. Not

29:12

at the moment with the strike and all that. But like you

29:14

know like... Well

29:16

it's sort of a double-edged sword isn't it? Because there

29:18

is in that, you know, when I was first on

29:20

TV even certainly when I was a

29:22

kid watching stuff a comedy show would come along

29:25

every six months or a year and it would

29:27

be a big... You know if it was your

29:29

generation's thing it would be a big deal. Whereas

29:31

now and you would... It would

29:33

seemingly people would get a decent shot at something

29:35

and get a couple of theories at least. It's

29:38

hard to even get noticed now as

29:40

a show, yeah. So you did a show

29:42

called London Irish? Yes. Again it was only one series

29:44

though right? One series, yeah. Not my

29:46

choice but yeah one series. So

29:50

with the same people that I went on to

29:52

do Derek ears with and there's a

29:54

lot of the reason I was able to do

29:57

Derek ears because London Irish existed so

29:59

I'm very glad. for it, you know. Yeah,

30:03

so that was cancelled after one. Yeah.

30:05

So that's almost, sort of almost, maybe

30:10

it's not as disappointing as never getting something on, but

30:12

it's almost worse, isn't it? Because it's sort of, you

30:14

get there and then you've got it up and running.

30:16

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Yeah, because you put so much

30:18

on there and

30:23

you've worked out that second series and

30:25

everything. And, yeah, and you just think

30:27

then of another mountain to climb, do

30:30

you know? Like, but,

30:32

yeah, you try to go and

30:34

learn something from us. Yeah. I

30:37

mean, there's a lot of being pissed off and annoyed, but, yeah.

30:40

And did you feel when you came up with Derry

30:42

Girls and gave Derry Girls before it was on,

30:45

did you feel this is it? This is going to be the one? No

30:47

way. Absolutely no way. I felt

30:50

that more about London Irish. Really? Yeah.

30:53

I feel like Derry Girls

30:55

was just, I

30:57

mean, who was going to watch it? That was

31:00

what I thought. I was like, are they mad?

31:02

And then, but I was just like, they're

31:04

letting me do it. And they don't

31:06

seem to be asking any questions and it seems like

31:08

it's happening. And then we

31:10

still don't know what happened, but, you

31:14

know, it worked. Yeah. And

31:16

sometimes you just don't know. Sometimes it's just,

31:18

it has the right time and that's that.

31:21

Yeah. And there is, I

31:23

mean, there definitely is an element of luck. I think like when you

31:25

look at something like The Office, which I always keep coming back to,

31:27

but it didn't really hit the

31:29

first time it was shown and it was repeated

31:31

because of one of those strikes. Oh, is that

31:33

right? Okay. Yeah. And

31:36

so, you know, I think John Peel championed it, people started championing it.

31:38

Oh, okay. But like when you think

31:41

if that had just been one series, then disappear, how

31:43

different the world of sitcoms and

31:45

entertainment would be, not saying it'd be

31:47

better if

31:49

Ricky Gervais wasn't successful. I'm not saying that

31:52

world would be an amazing world. I

31:56

do fail the rawest shows that I've been a fan of

31:59

that have kept me going. kind of disappeared

32:01

and it's, you know, really

32:04

good stuff. And you just go, yeah, but

32:06

that's, yeah, it's not fair, is that, yeah.

32:11

It's not fair, but then once you've got that,

32:14

once you do have a hit behind you,

32:16

does the doors open and everything become much

32:19

easier? Becomes a bit better easier, like

32:21

not as easy as I like it today. Yeah,

32:25

and I don't know how long it'll last, so I'm

32:27

just running at it now because people

32:29

seem to be, like now

32:31

I'm the derri-gish person, so until that runs

32:33

out, I'm just gonna write,

32:35

write, write. Yeah. But

32:39

yeah, it definitely makes

32:41

things a bit easier. Yeah, that's nice

32:43

to know. And really interviews, it sounds

32:45

like, I mean, is there a girls,

32:48

there was sort of talk of a movie of Derry Girls,

32:51

is that gonna happen? No, no, no, no. There

32:54

was talk for a while, but then

32:57

you, I don't, I mean,

32:59

God knows, but probably in 10 years, it

33:01

could have changed my mind, but I

33:04

just think when you end something, really the way you wanna end

33:06

it, I don't wanna

33:08

be that person that goes back and everybody

33:10

hates it, you

33:12

know? I do,

33:15

it's a difficult decision because everyone obviously would love to

33:17

see more, even though I absolutely, you know, it

33:20

is that perfect show in that it's, that

33:23

it wraps itself up. It's hard

33:26

to imagine coming back, but you're still thinking

33:28

about the characters and you're still kind of

33:32

imagining their futures and what they would

33:34

be now. Yeah, it's less so now, but

33:36

definitely when I, when that year ended, yeah,

33:42

stuff obviously still pops under your head, ideas, and

33:45

you write it down and then you go, oh,

33:47

I don't, that's, we're done. But

33:50

you know, you could, suddenly you could bring it

33:52

up to date and... I've

33:55

been now, no, okay, all right.

33:57

No. No. Can I, can I?

34:00

I write it. Except

34:03

I want to call it London Derry Girls. It's just a

34:05

little, it's just a little thing. Hope

34:10

that's not controversial. I'll

34:14

just ask Cut to get over that one. Wondering

34:17

about putting that in and then there it is. Tired

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All access memberships ever. Terms

35:30

apply. Um,

35:36

I'll ask you an emergency question. Okay.

35:38

Yeah. You ready? I'm nervous. You should

35:40

be nervous. It's not this. You just have to answer

35:43

the question. Okay. Who is that? Because I do

35:45

little compilations of the emergency questions now every

35:47

month and uh, and forget ones that I've

35:51

forgotten about. And the one that's coming out next,

35:53

if you're listening at home, it probably is out

35:55

already, is what, who is the most famous person

35:57

you've ever been in a lift with that you've

35:59

never met? that you didn't get into the lift with. Ashlyn

36:02

B needed a lot of explanation of that, of

36:04

what that meant, but it just means that. Yeah,

36:07

yeah, is that my question? Yeah, that's the question.

36:09

Is it Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey? Oh, yeah,

36:11

that's the nice one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it doesn't

36:13

get on the left, she went on the left. Is

36:16

that the answer, yeah? Well, you've got to be in the lift

36:18

with her, you can't lift. Oh, I thought you said that you didn't get on

36:20

the left. No, you didn't, it's... I,

36:23

I, no. The reason I stopped asking this question

36:25

was because Ashlyn B, I think like the pandemic

36:27

came and I forgot about it, and she was

36:29

the last person I asked her. You

36:32

just, you can't have walked into the lift like

36:34

you were at a meeting with Ruth Jones and then

36:36

we said, let's get a lift up to the next

36:38

thing. You got in a lift and she either got

36:41

in separately or you... Who's

36:43

famous that have been in a lift with? Yeah. But

36:45

you didn't, that you didn't get in the lift

36:47

with. But not who's famous,

36:49

not who's famous you've been in a lift with that you

36:52

were having, that you got in the lift with. Who's

36:56

famous? Yes, go start again, sorry.

36:58

So, like the first time

37:00

I was in, I got in a lift and

37:03

Jeremy Paxman was in the lift and I touched my

37:05

briefcase with one of his hands, my one on my

37:07

hands. So I didn't

37:09

get into the lift with Jeremy Paxman, he was

37:11

in there. Equally, if I'd been in the lift

37:13

with Jeremy Paxman and had come in on the

37:15

next floor, that would count. But if I'd said,

37:17

hey Jeremy, let's get in the lift together, that

37:20

would knock him. Oh,

37:22

I say what you mean. Yeah, good. Pretty,

37:25

pretty simple. If something about

37:27

the island of Ireland finds

37:29

this a difficult one. Yeah. I

37:37

don't think I've ever been in the lift with that

37:39

famous person. What's happened with Ruth Jones? She,

37:43

we were both getting in a lift. Yeah.

37:45

We'd gone and it was the BBC's separate

37:47

lift. You wore all the lifts in the

37:49

BBC. I suppose you got in a different lift. We

37:51

got a shape story. But were you together?

37:54

Were you together when you got in different lifts?

37:56

Or was she just waiting for the lifts? Because

37:58

this will count if it's a different lift. as long as

38:01

you weren't waiting downstairs and then Ruth

38:03

just says, just real funnily,

38:05

so I'm going to get different lifts. No,

38:07

no, no. We were both waiting to go.

38:09

Yeah. Samford maintenance. Yeah. And we

38:12

got a different lift. That's fine. Okay.

38:14

I'm going to allow it. Okay. but

38:18

they do at the BBC. Okay. That's

38:20

where I saw Jeremy Paxman. I saw Ruth Jones

38:22

on Charing Cross Road once. Wow.

38:25

Yeah. Not a lift though, is

38:27

it? The story doesn't care.

38:30

Good. We'll get back. So look, there's

38:32

a few things you've been working on

38:34

since Derry Girls, and what

38:36

I'm excited to talk about is your new project,

38:38

and I would like to know a little bit

38:40

about this, as much as you can tell us,

38:43

how to get to heaven from Belfast. Yeah.

38:47

Wow. Some fans already. Yeah.

38:49

Or is they just liking the idea that they

38:51

might get to heaven? How?

38:55

It's a tell us. How can we do it? What

38:58

is it about? It's about a

39:00

group of friends who

39:02

are in their late 30s who

39:05

go to the

39:07

wake of an old friend they were at school with

39:09

who they haven't seen in 20 years, and

39:12

it's all very weird and mysterious,

39:15

and a lot of weird stuff happens, and then they have

39:17

to go on this adventure to solve the mystery, but

39:19

it's kind of like a comedy thriller. It's

39:22

often from Derry Girls. Yeah. All your

39:24

long episodes, there's thriller beats, a

39:27

lot of running around, but hopefully

39:29

it's funny. I hope that's all there is. It's

39:31

a bit like Murder She Wrote but in Belfast.

39:33

Yeah. Yeah.

39:35

And there's three of them, more swearing.

39:38

Yeah. Yeah. I think Murder She Wrote

39:40

would have been better with a bit of swearing, and it

39:42

should have been called Murder She Fucking Wrote. That

39:44

would be great, wouldn't it? Murder She Fucking

39:46

Wrote. Yeah. Diagnosis

39:49

Fucking Murder. No, I think it works for all

39:52

of them. Colum Fucking Bow.

39:57

And when will we see it as it will be started? Is

40:00

it filming? Has it been filmed? No, we're still

40:02

writing it. We were doing a writer's room all

40:04

this week actually. And

40:06

we'll film it next year. Yeah. And

40:09

then out in 2025? I

40:11

think so. Wow, I mean, it does take a

40:14

long time, doesn't it? It takes such a long

40:16

time. Writing them takes a long time. That's what

40:18

people don't understand. It's just like,

40:20

should I just do it? And you're like, what if

40:22

it takes ages? Yeah. Well then to create, I

40:24

mean, that's what, you know, as a writer, I

40:27

look at the stuff you've done and

40:29

we talk about Derry Girls and I'm such a big

40:31

fan of Derry Girls. But just a look

40:33

at that and go, how long did it take to, you

40:36

know, to get just that cast off? Because

40:38

there's so many people in it as well.

40:41

Yeah. But you can even get the core

40:43

group together and work out what all the characteristics were gonna

40:45

be and then what their relationships to each other were gonna

40:47

be. And it's so beautifully put together.

40:49

I don't know if there's a little bit of

40:51

your granddad sort of is. There's some that are

40:53

very, that I don't have to

40:56

work very hard for, like the grandfather. But

40:59

yeah, there's a lot of sort of working stuff out

41:01

with the gang, making sure a

41:04

group of friends sometimes, they have to be believable

41:06

as people that would hang around with each other,

41:09

but also in a comedy so distinct, they

41:11

can't ever sound the same. So you're always kind

41:13

of figuring that out as well. Yeah. Yeah,

41:17

and that was, we took a long time putting

41:19

that cast together and all that. And

41:22

it just worked. I remember we were

41:25

very nervous about whether it was or wasn't

41:27

working. Because I think

41:29

an ensemble, obviously it loves their days, but if

41:31

you believe that central group. And

41:34

they were doing, we were filming this

41:36

scene where they've stolen

41:39

a notice board from a chip

41:41

shop. But for some

41:43

reason, they just think they're legends at this

41:45

point. And they're just like walking down the

41:47

street like rock stars, so they think. And

41:50

they just look like such ducks. I mean,

41:52

the director were just like, that's them. Look at

41:54

the state of them. This is like brilliant, you

41:56

know. And you're laughing, because

41:58

I thought when I'm laughing. and ask them to

42:00

walk on. This is good.

42:05

And what's interesting in it is again like the office, it

42:07

was shown like this is success, and

42:09

this was a problem I think for you in

42:12

the first series. All the people have become so

42:14

successful as a result of being successful. Yeah, really

42:16

annoying. Successful things that you can't actually get them

42:18

together in the same space to do. You have

42:20

to have some of them on a wall and

42:22

some of them standing at the bottom of the

42:24

wall. So they can be in the same scene

42:26

together. Very

42:28

stressful. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking

42:30

about as well. Yeah,

42:33

and just a nightmare in any straight COVID under that,

42:35

and it was a great crack. But it's

42:37

brilliant casting. It's

42:42

so interesting, isn't it? I keep

42:44

thinking about that, especially if someone nearly gets

42:46

a part. I've

42:48

met a couple of people who nearly got a part in

42:50

the office or nearly with such a thing. And

42:53

you think, well, if they got that part, would it

42:55

have been as good? And would they have got on

42:57

to be in Hollywood, or was it? Yeah, well, that's

42:59

interesting. Because one thing I tried to do if

43:01

someone was brilliant. So

43:03

we had an actress, Leo

43:06

Rourke, who plays Jenny Joyce. She

43:09

was auditioning for Claire. And

43:12

she just wasn't really clear. She

43:14

was brilliant and we kept bringing her back, but

43:17

it just wasn't going... I don't know

43:19

why. Jenny Joyce was

43:21

going to be this one-episode character.

43:24

And so we just decided we're going to

43:26

have to write that character because she's just

43:28

so brilliant and give her

43:30

that character. And we did that a few

43:32

times with people. They weren't maybe just

43:34

exactly right for who they were auditioning for.

43:37

Because it's so hard to get funny actors

43:39

that you just go, yeah,

43:41

let's try and hold on to them somehow. Well,

43:44

I like that you put... I mean, I'm

43:46

disappointed one comedian wasn't in it, but I

43:48

like that you put... I

43:51

like that you put comedians in serious roles.

43:53

They've probably been in Anandal as well. I

43:55

mean, they both proved themselves as fantastic actors

43:58

anyway. But they are... Tommy

44:00

Tinn is so good at that character.

44:03

He's brilliant, he's brilliant actor, isn't he? And

44:05

also there's a wee bit of me getting to do

44:08

Pop Night Heroes and stuff, like Kevin. Again,

44:10

that's a fine felting. You

44:16

know, Ardal particularly. I

44:18

can do the accent. Oh,

44:24

and from Nerds Nighting! Yeah,

44:27

I could have done it. Yes,

44:30

yes, yes. That's

44:32

a friend. That could have been it.

44:37

Thank you. I'm

44:41

going to go to, I just want to show the

44:43

audience these wonderful books that are available in the foyer

44:45

after the show. I'm going

44:47

to pick an early emergency question for you.

44:51

Just give you a rest from the dairy girls.

44:54

Okay. Have you ever

44:56

seen a ghost, Lisa McGee? I've heard

44:58

a ghost. You've heard one. What

45:01

was she doing? They

45:03

told me to become a nun. It is. That's

45:07

the Holy Ghost. That's

45:09

the best ghost there is. Yeah,

45:12

yeah. What was the circumstances and

45:14

why aren't you a nun if a ghost has told

45:16

you to be one? Okay, so I was

45:18

staying in my friend's apartment in

45:20

Belfast and I

45:23

was quite tired. I

45:25

don't know if I was hungover, but I'm

45:28

going to say I wasn't hungover, or right,

45:30

but I heard this. I was

45:33

sleeping and I heard this. I was sleeping. So

45:36

many of these stories. I was

45:38

asleep and then I saw. But

45:41

there was a nun, I was very aware, there was

45:43

a presence of a nun in a room and she

45:45

said, I'm really sure you need to be a nun.

45:47

This is just your life. At that time

45:49

I was working as a stage manager and I wasn't very good

45:51

at it, so I was like, maybe this is

45:53

an option. But then I went round

45:56

that detail and all my friends. I

45:58

have to be a fucking nun now. desperate

46:00

and then I also remember staying under the

46:02

non spirit but I've only been a writer

46:04

and she's like you can still write loads of

46:07

non's right and I was like okay but

46:09

by... Yeah they write

46:11

but no one fucking reads anything they put. Well

46:16

I've just bought a book by a non's partner. So

46:20

then I told

46:22

everyone they were like Lisa you're not gonna be a

46:24

nun like grow up. I

46:27

sort of got myself out of it. Somebody

46:29

came and bought van. Did

46:32

the ghost come back? No, no, no. I told you

46:34

to be a nun. The apartment used to be a convent. The

46:37

building. Yeah if that story hadn't happened in

46:39

Ireland that would be amazing. I

46:42

thought that was a really

46:44

good schluss. That's

46:51

but like if a ghost tells you to be a nun and

46:54

then you're not a nun what's also the

46:56

ghost telling you to be a nun for? She's a

46:58

nun and she's dead. Yeah. It

47:01

sounds like it's a trap to me. I was a nun. It

47:04

killed me and now I'm gonna get you

47:06

into the nun business. Yeah. Also

47:09

if I was a nun I would creep

47:11

around people's houses, the houses of young

47:14

women. If I was a

47:16

nun and whisper you've got to become

47:18

a nun because that's a ghost. Yeah.

47:21

And pretend to be a ghost like Scooby Doo. Yeah.

47:24

And you're a nun, isn't it? Yeah. Nuns,

47:27

they can't reproduce that the whole point, can they? So

47:30

you have to get new people in. If

47:32

you're a dead nun you don't give a shit about her. She wasn't

47:34

dead, she was alive. She was an alive nun

47:36

pretending to be a dead nun. Right, right. To

47:38

get new nuns in. That

47:40

seems more far fetched than an actual

47:42

ghost. You don't know what

47:45

nuns are capable of. They've got a lot of

47:47

time for themselves. Any nuns in? You

47:51

admit, come on you know, there's something suspicious, isn't it?

47:53

So when you're that good it's a bit

47:55

suspicious. That's what I would say. I

47:58

want a quarter falling nun. I

48:02

once caught a falling nun. A

48:05

nun was falling down the stairs. It was in Habitat

48:07

in Hammersmith when they had her. She

48:10

fell down the stairs and I just

48:12

got underneath her. I didn't fully catch

48:14

her. But I dove down and so

48:16

her head landed on my head. If

48:20

it is when we die, if it has the

48:22

Catholics that are up there, that's a massive brownie

48:24

point. Yeah, I think so. I'm

48:27

hoping. I don't know if it balances everything

48:29

else that I've done. But

48:34

let's hope so. She wasn't very grateful. Could

48:39

have got me a gift voucher for Habitat. Very

48:45

good. I'm going to ask you another emergency question

48:47

because that was fantastic. I've got a different book.

48:49

I've got the original book for all sorts. I'm

48:55

going to ask you would you rather in a minute as well. This

49:00

is a slight abasputation before

49:02

I do this one. If

49:05

you had a finger that could travel through time. Where

49:09

would you go? Would you take your finger

49:11

and what would you do with it? Wait, hold on. Is

49:13

it just my finger? Otherwise

49:16

I'd have said if you could travel through time. But

49:18

can I see what the finger is doing? You

49:23

can look through. There would be a hole about that big. Just

49:25

so you can check what's going

49:27

on. You could probably sniff to see if there

49:29

was a smell. Is

49:33

there any way you'd like your finger to be in history or the

49:36

future? No, it would definitely

49:38

be history. It might

49:40

be like the fine art of Jack the Rapper walls

49:42

or something. The Egyptians? I

49:45

don't know what. Or the Egyptians. Jack the

49:48

Rapper or the Egyptians. It's

49:50

quite a broad show. What

49:53

would you do to clear back? Which

49:55

Egyptian are you interested in? the

50:00

Tooten the female. Yeah,

50:02

not that, I would say not that interested

50:05

Lisa. If you say, the fella old Tooten

50:07

was here. I think, and you know,

50:09

we went around the world and asked, what's the name

50:11

of the, what a gimp ancient and different skinny name.

50:13

I think people would say Tooten Camun, were we the

50:15

first ones that said not? That fella Tooten was

50:17

his face. I know, I don't

50:20

know, I lost confidence as to the name. Yeah, you

50:22

did Tooten Camun. What would you do

50:24

Tooten Camun? I just like to

50:26

see what was going on and what was up there.

50:28

You've got a chance to alter things

50:30

very slightly. I

50:33

might move some stuff around. Yeah, you can do that. Yeah,

50:35

yeah. Okay. You

50:40

haven't really thought it through. Right,

50:42

this might go out, I

50:44

think this will go out next year actually, just like we

50:46

asked at Christmas, but I'm going to ask you a Christmas

50:48

emergency question. Okay. It's

50:50

just going to be whatever. Oh look,

50:52

this is an interesting question. Academic and science

50:54

writer, Ben Goldacre, are you aware of the

50:57

work of Ben Goldacre? Absolutely. It keeps Christmas

50:59

cake in his freezer so he can enjoy

51:01

it all year round. Right. That's

51:03

a fact. Okay. I've been to his flat.

51:05

Is there any Christmas food that you enjoy

51:07

consuming at the wrong time of year? It's

51:10

an unlikely answer. I've never asked anyone

51:12

that question. Snowballs, you know them? Snowball

51:14

cakes. Yeah. With like

51:16

full fat Coke. Right. If

51:19

you take a bite and then drank the Coke,

51:22

it's like a whole experience. Right, okay. You

51:25

can do that any time, doesn't it feel weird if

51:28

you do that in July? I've never ever tried it.

51:30

Okay. I might now though. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

51:33

Good. All right. We'll

51:35

get back to your career and

51:38

what we've got for you. So you've

51:41

written with your husband. Yes.

51:44

The murder you wrote, she wrote, to

51:46

Nancy. Yes. How was that?

51:48

Because my wife is a writer and

51:50

a better writer than I am, I think. She

51:53

sometimes says she'll write something together and I kind of say, I

51:56

think we will be divorced quite quickly if

51:58

we do that. How do you? you

52:00

defined writing with your partner? Do

52:03

you know, it's actually, it was good because

52:05

I think that thing you're saying it's

52:07

not just you on your, at that stage I'd written

52:09

Derogate on my own. So to

52:12

have someone kind of, we

52:14

always agreed on what we were doing with

52:16

that show as well. So to have someone

52:18

on your corner, you were at least two

52:20

people arguing with all our people then, you know,

52:22

it was good

52:24

and it was good to get

52:26

a crack at it. Why we decided to

52:28

write the show we wrote together was because

52:31

we really liked those you know, Dilem for

52:33

murder, those old sort of thrillers

52:35

and we just wanted to do something that like

52:39

over four parts of people could just sit down

52:41

and have their dinner with and watch a good

52:43

old murder show kind of thing. So,

52:46

you know, it was really nice. I know what you're

52:48

saying, I know it did get to the point where

52:51

it was all we talked about and

52:53

I had just had our second. Wow.

52:57

Son, and I was in

52:59

the hospital after a section complaining

53:02

about a costume I didn't like. So

53:05

I can get a bat where you go, maybe we should

53:07

step back from this and you

53:10

know. And your husband's

53:12

an Englishman, I take it from having spoken to

53:14

him, I know, because I've looked at this

53:16

and I've heard different, slightly different,

53:19

you're both Christians but one of

53:21

you's got, I mean, he's a

53:23

Christianity. Christianity

53:25

about just forgiving people, it doesn't matter

53:27

if they don't agree with you totally,

53:29

you turn the other cheek. I don't

53:31

know, I don't want to come to Belfast and tell

53:33

you what to do. He's

53:35

a Protestant and you're a Catholic. Yes. You

53:41

know, that's a great

53:43

story, is that? Well,

53:45

he doesn't really believe in anything. Okay.

53:48

His family are like, so

53:51

at our wedding we

53:53

had to have two lines for communion. Yes.

53:57

Like, it was, and it got quite competitive.

54:00

the Catholic Irish Lane wanted to be the

54:02

bigger lane. Yeah. So yeah,

54:04

stuff like that again. Did they win though? Did the

54:06

Irish Lane win? I can't even remember. Yeah, yeah. And

54:10

you've moved back to Northern

54:12

Ireland after living in London. Yes,

54:14

we're here now, yeah. And I

54:16

mean, obviously, like the industry in

54:19

Belfast is insane. It's amazing, yeah.

54:21

I mean, like your... In

54:24

all seriousness, Sterry Girls has been like... It must

54:26

have been an amazing thing for writers

54:28

in Northern Ireland to see you have

54:30

that success and think this is possible,

54:33

right? So that's... Yeah, I think there's

54:35

a lot more confidence that

54:38

people will be

54:41

able to understand our accents and

54:45

our sense of humour and they

54:47

want to hear our stories. Yeah. So

54:50

yeah, I think I hope we're going to see a

54:52

lot more comedy from here. Was

54:54

that part of the reason you wanted to move

54:56

back or was it just... It

54:59

was like a number of things. I think

55:01

the kids was about saying, you know, a lot of people

55:03

move home, don't they, when they have children?

55:05

But I think it got to the point where we were

55:07

just filming everything in Belfast and it was like, this is

55:10

not. She moved to London because, you

55:12

know, that's where the

55:14

industry was and then we're flying back all

55:16

the time and it just made sense. Yeah.

55:19

And you know, we can zoom, can't we, if

55:21

we need to zoom in London? And also, you're

55:24

a big deal and then fucking come to you.

55:27

Those London pricks come to you

55:30

on an easy jet. On

55:33

a delayed easy jet for four hours. Yeah,

55:38

it's about, you know, that is with the

55:40

whole, you know, the whole industry, the game

55:42

of Thrones that seems to be around. I

55:45

mean, it's a brilliant time for Angie, but

55:48

you're in the EU and the UK at the same

55:50

time. It's a brilliant time to... It's

55:53

worked out pretty well, hasn't it? Yeah, I mean,

55:55

there's certainly like a lot of... There's

56:00

a lot of, and for a

56:02

while there's been a lot of stuff being made

56:04

here, but I'm excited about is there stuff now

56:07

about here? Yeah. Being made here. Yeah. And I

56:09

think that's really what... Wasn't Game of Thrones about

56:11

Northern Ireland. I

56:14

misunderstood. The

56:18

White Walkers, I thought that was

56:20

part of it. Well, that was something. And

56:25

yeah, it's um... I

56:28

was going to ask you the same question I just asked you then. I won't do that.

56:35

This is mainly for me, because I'm a

56:37

terrible interviewer who's been tired. I'm

56:39

going to ask you another emergency question and then

56:41

we'll get back. Watch you. Look, the time has

56:43

flown by. Fucking hell, it

56:45

really has. I've got time to dick around with

56:48

emergency questions. But I've got to

56:50

ask... There's some I've got to ask to make the

56:52

people... I don't want to come all the way to

56:54

Belfast and not get a cheer for asking a desperate

56:57

question. Would

56:59

you rather have a hand made out

57:02

of ham? You're

57:05

wasting your time writing sitcoms. Just write

57:07

a question and you get a cheer

57:09

everywhere around the... Handmade out

57:11

of ham or an armpit that dispenses sun cream. So

57:14

you can eat your hand, it'll grow back. Oh my god,

57:16

sun cream. Wait till you've heard all

57:19

this stuff. Everyone chooses the sun

57:21

cream. Sun

57:23

cream is quite a set, you can have a nozzle

57:25

there, but it's only enough for personal use. You can

57:28

give it to other people, but it's

57:30

not like a factory. Can you fill up bottles

57:32

with it? Well you can, but it will only be enough

57:34

to have how much you would use in a year. So you get three

57:36

bottles or something. I don't know how much

57:38

you use. I had some in my

57:41

bag and it got taken away by customs. And

57:43

fucking slathered themselves in my sun cream.

57:47

I definitely do the sun cream thing.

57:49

Yeah, I guess. Does everyone say that?

57:51

Yeah, of course, the hand made ham

57:53

horrible. It's a ridiculous, it's a stupid

57:55

question. It's

57:57

a damn silly, poorly questioned. Well,

58:01

look, I really understand why you wouldn't

58:03

want to do more Derry Girls. I

58:05

completely understand. And

58:07

I'm really excited to see the new

58:10

show. Is

58:12

there other stuff that you work, are you writing? Because

58:15

now you must be more financially secure

58:17

than you were when you first went

58:19

over to London. So you

58:21

could, you know, you can go back to

58:23

writing plays. Is that

58:25

something that it feels to you? It does. I

58:28

have had an idea

58:30

for a play for ages. Again,

58:32

it's just motivate people. You

58:35

have a TV, you have people around you

58:37

who just shout at you until you do

58:39

the thing. And the other things

58:41

were like being a novelist or something. And

58:43

so I'll go, I'm

58:45

going to work on my play, but then I just

58:47

sit because it's like of no real pressure. And so,

58:50

you know, there's

58:52

a lot of motivation with TV because we

58:55

have a wee team that's making

58:57

the new show. We want to keep working

59:00

together. Yeah. Yeah.

59:02

Yeah. I mean, I completely get that. And I'm just like,

59:05

I want to write a novel, but it's not fucking about.

59:08

I mean, it's not going to

59:10

happen. I mean, like if someone really said we're going to pay you and

59:12

you have to do it by now, I might manage to do it. Yeah.

59:15

And that's when I wrote Time Gentlemen Please, and

59:18

I really did it nearly all on my

59:21

own. And we did 22 episodes in the

59:23

first series, but they gave us 13 of

59:26

those episodes in the middle

59:29

of the run. So I had to

59:31

write one. Oh my God. I had to write an episode a

59:33

week on my own. Oh my God. You get it done though.

59:35

Yeah. I mean, I don't think I could do it

59:38

now. I was young, but I

59:40

did it and they weren't noticeably

59:42

better or worse than the other one. Yeah.

59:46

It's the thing like my memory. I can't remember if we

59:48

were saying this back there here. Yeah. The

59:51

works, once you've set up that

59:53

pilot, that first episode, there's a

59:55

hundred times more work with under

59:57

that than they are. So you can kind of run at

59:59

it then. And you have the

1:00:01

fun, as you say, if you find an actor or

1:00:03

a character that you love, you can turn it halfway

1:00:06

through that. Halfway through that series,

1:00:08

Rebecca front said, I'm pregnant, I'm going

1:00:10

to be, by the time we finish

1:00:12

the series, I'm going to be noticeably

1:00:14

pregnant. That

1:00:19

became a story arc throughout the whole series where

1:00:21

she got pregnant, we didn't know who'd been pregnant

1:00:24

and she didn't know who'd been pregnant. So

1:00:27

it's really interesting to use that. And I think

1:00:29

you do, I mean, I

1:00:31

don't think many people could do what I did. I

1:00:34

generally don't. I don't think there

1:00:36

are many people who could allow themselves to

1:00:39

do it so fast.

1:00:43

And it was really hard. It

1:00:45

kind of destroyed me for a bit. I don't think many people

1:00:47

would attempt it. But I think most,

1:00:50

if someone said to you, you have to

1:00:52

write an episode of Dairy Girls in the next week, because

1:00:54

all world. You have to

1:00:56

for some all the reasons. That would have been,

1:00:58

I would have really freaked out if it

1:01:00

had been an episode, but you would have had to

1:01:02

do it. But like, sometimes you

1:01:04

can't film it for all the reasons or something

1:01:07

happens with an actor and you just have

1:01:09

to get very creative and

1:01:12

be very open to change in TV writing, I

1:01:14

think. It's just, it's never the

1:01:16

final thing. And even when it goes out

1:01:18

in TV, I'll say something I wish that

1:01:20

changed. Do you know where a better

1:01:22

version of the thing? I

1:01:24

mean, yeah, it is. It's

1:01:26

good that you have to stop, though, right? It's good.

1:01:29

It's good because it has to be a point. I

1:01:32

think I always say there's like a brilliant

1:01:34

there's there's like the perfect time

1:01:37

with an idea and it's. So

1:01:41

it can be developed for too long

1:01:43

or it can start too

1:01:45

quickly. But there is a sort of

1:01:47

muddle going. But if you don't start when you need to

1:01:50

start, you'll leave the

1:01:52

whole energy of the idea, I

1:01:54

think, as well. Yeah. And

1:01:58

is it? but

1:04:02

you seem like a very together and happy,

1:04:04

but are you content? Are you happy in

1:04:06

your life? Is that what you feel like?

1:04:08

I am, yeah. I really, I feel very

1:04:10

lucky. You know, I, yeah, I

1:04:12

am. I really,

1:04:14

really love what I do as well.

1:04:16

And it's just incredible to have a

1:04:19

job that you're so excited and don't

1:04:21

know. Like, I still don't know. I

1:04:23

don't know anything about it. You know, it's that

1:04:26

thing of the more you know, the less

1:04:28

you know. It's just like, there's

1:04:30

so much still to learn

1:04:33

and there's so much good writing at the minute that

1:04:36

it's, you're just, you're always

1:04:38

trying to push yourself or, yeah.

1:04:41

Yeah. Well, look, Lisa, it's so,

1:04:43

it's such an absolute pleasure to meet you. I

1:04:45

have to say, I am a huge fan and

1:04:47

it's great to see you in Belfast, in Northern

1:04:49

Ireland amongst your people, who I know love you.

1:04:52

Ladies and gentlemen, the fantastic Lisa McGee! Take

1:04:55

her out. You

1:04:59

have been listening to Hulletheburgh with me, Richard

1:05:01

Herring, and my guest, Lisa McGee. Thank

1:05:05

you, Miss Cameron Dyer, for providing us with

1:05:07

this music. I mean, just to our friend

1:05:09

Chris Evans, not that one, and Ben Evans,

1:05:11

not that one, and George Zingford,

1:05:13

not that one, and Cliff, that

1:05:15

one, she's the only one. And

1:05:19

I was going to say something else. Oh, and

1:05:21

everyone here at the Mac in Belfast, of course,

1:05:23

thank you for having us, and EasyJet for making

1:05:25

our trip here so easy, and

1:05:28

the man at security making me go around

1:05:30

three times. Thanks for that. This is the

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1:07:11

Thanks for listening. richardherring.com/rahalastapa for the

1:07:13

Rahalastapa tour. richardherring.com/gigs or richardherring.com/ballback slash

1:07:16

tour for the tour gigs. All

1:07:18

make wonderful Christmas gifts for the

1:07:20

Richard Herring fan in your family,

1:07:22

which is probably just you. So

1:07:25

just tell all your friends and

1:07:27

families to buy them for you

1:07:29

and then get 100 tickets to

1:07:31

each show and then just

1:07:34

sit on your own and watch me on your own. Okay,

1:07:36

thanks for listening, bye.