Channel 4 has commissioned a new comedy thriller series, How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, from Lisa McGee, the writer and creator of IFTA and BAFTA-winning comedy series Derry Girls.
Lisa McGee, creator of Derry Girls, is set to pen her latest series for Channel 4 and Hat Trick Productions.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast follows Saoirse, Robyn and Dara who have been friends since school. Now in their late thirties they lead very different lives. Saoirse, a successful writer with self-destructive compulsions, Robyn, a sweary, stressed out mother of three young boys, and Dara, a full-time carer of an elderly parent, who hasn't managed to move out of her teenage bedroom.
The women each receive an email informing them of the death of Greta, an old classmate they were once very close with. The friends decide to attend Greta's wake and discover all may not be quite as it seems. They soon find themselves embroiled in a dark and twisted mystery.
“I've wanted to make a comedy thriller set in Northern Ireland for such a long time,” said Lisa McGee. “I cannot wait to share these flawed funny women with everyone.”
Speaking with IFTN earlier this year about the end of Derry Girls, McGee described the upcoming project as "like the Coen brothers, only they’re Northern Irish women.”
“This is huge,” said Charlie Perkins, Head of Comedy at Channel 4. “We couldn’t be prouder that Channel 4 feels like this extraordinary show’s spiritual home.”
Perkins, who commissioned the series, continued: “Getting to know the multi-hyphenated talents of Lisa, Liz, Caroline and their collaborators at Hat Trick Productions has been one of the greatest pleasures in my first year as Head of Comedy. We can’t wait to bring Lisa’s next world to life for all those who already love her work and many more to come.”
This series will mark McGee’s continued collaboration with Liz Lewin and Caroline Leddy, executive producers of Derry Girls, who will exec produce How to Get to Heaven from Belfast alongside Hat Trick Productions’ Jimmy Mulville.
Casting details and release dates are yet to be announced.
