Derry Girls

[Colin R]

Sorry guys for lowering the tone, but has anyone seen the last episode? It was about a day out from Derry/Londonderry to Portrush. as it was set towards the end of the troubles, you get the sub plot of thinking the IRA are in the background, it turns out they are no were to be seen. 

The point is while you may laugh at the programme, it still winds me up that they had a through station for Londonderry (no Derry bit on the name board) and it look like they had for one back scene the IRPS sidings with a stored van in BR Blue?

In the UK and I suspect NI as well it is on again Friday evening Channel 4 around 9pm, what and when it is on in Eire, I don't have a clue, sorry. but it is worth doing a catch up on all 3 series if you can. I think this last series is just about pushing it as the main school girls character are now all in there later 20's early 30's and it shows.

 

Colin           

[popeye]

It is a bit daft but it is popular.

That episode was all filmed at Downpatrick & Co Down Railway Museum.

 

[Galteemore]

Not all of it….the establishing shots were filmed at Whitehead (NIR).

[popeye]

I mist the start of it, so I did not see that bit.

[Sean]

Didnt you know its bad form to comment on their age 

[airfixfan]

Some scenes were filmed at Whitehead where the station nameboatds were both changed to Londonderry for the morning of filming. This caused some discussion amongst locals!

[Galteemore]

7 hours ago, popeye said:

I mist the start of it, so I did not see that bit.

I missed the middle in fairness(only skimmed through till I hit the first train bit!). Good to see a heritage railway picking up a bit of business.

[Lambeg man]

Had they gone to the real Derry station, the joke about being on the wrong platform would not have worked. Such is the way TV works. While they all boarded a CAF (delivered about 7 years after the supposed date of the comedy setting) at Whitehead, the remainder was clearly shot in a preserved 450 set. So some credit there. Equally the gag line about the nun and the schoolgirl overhearing the booking office clerk's telephone conversation would not have worked in a modern booking hall.

I love this programme and am amazed that my very English daughter-in-law absolutely loves it too. I will never look at a Kit Kat in the same light again!

That said, current series episodes 2 & 3 have not matched the sheer quality of episode 1. Liam Nesson was awesome. LM   

[GSR 800]

1 minute ago, Lambeg man said:

Had they gone to the real Derry station, the joke about being on the wrong platform would not have worked. Such is the way TV works. While they all boarded a CAF (delivered about 7 years after the supposed date of the comedy setting) at Whitehead, the remainder was clearly shot in a preserved 450 set. So some credit there. Equally the gag line about the nun and the schoolgirl overhearing the booking office clerk's telephone conversation would not have worked in a modern booking hall.

I love this programme and am amazed that my very English daughter-in-law absolutely loves it too. I will never look at a Kit Kat in the same light again!

That said, current series episodes 2 & 3 have not matched the sheer quality of episode 1. Liam Nesson was awesome. LM   

Kevin McAleer as Uncle Colm is excellent

[Lambeg man]

As is Ian McElhinney as "Joe". Issues around trains has to be accepted in the way that most of the "parents" are in real life only ten years older than most of the "Children". LM

[Lambeg man]

On 26/4/2022 at 10:57 PM, Colin R said:

but it is worth doing a catch up on all 3 series if you can.

The episode about the visiting Ukrainians was a sheer classic. "He's a Prod from East Belfast. He got on the wrong bus at Aldergrove and now he's stuck here in Derry surrounded by Fenians and Russians"  

Edited April 28, 2022 by Lambeg man

[Mike Beckett]

I was slightly involved in this… from planning, contracts and operations, and yes, driving 458. Which is more fun than you’d think.

We did discuss the realism with them early on, but we know not to fight it - comedy comes before absolute technical accuracy in a field most people don’t care about.

Whitehead NIR was used as they needed an old style footbridge at a station, and that is the last one on the network. Waterside didn’t have two platforms either, so… so what, it was funny. The possibility of using the actual Waterside station was lost when filming stalled due to Covid. Even then there was only one platform.

There were technical details about the train that weren’t quite right for the era (newer style DDA-type door controls etc., and some insufferable bores have complained) and clearly the 450s didn’t have tables or a buffet, but the overall look was perfect, much closer than a bog standard ex-Enterprise Mark 2 or a Park Royal or something, and after all the 450 were unfortunate regulars on the line for many years. 

Another point is that they would never, ever get the degree of flexibility on the mainline that they need for that level of filming, especially with today’s increased public trains 7 days a week. There were some compromises needed during filming (you’ll note the train wasn’t going that fast - 7mph was perfect and it worked well on screen the way it was framed) and we had to keep going back down the line as all filming had to be the same direction or it would look wrong, which was something we pointed out in advance.  That was fun, I got a good bit of thrash and parp on those moves, pity nobody was around to capture them. There really is a balance to be struck between total technical accuracy to please the small number of train nerds like us in this world and the needs of the filming where it just needs it to be good enough. They were never going to get decent footage of a 450 on the Derry Line, and needed an iconic view, so a CAF at Downhill it was then. Wobbly camcorder footage of a 450 back in the day (even mine) was never going to meld well into the modern production.

The biggest crime of all was the dubbed PARP sounds, how dare they. Don’t they know I am the master!

There was a lot of very hard work from the small team at DCDR, and it is probably the most complex filming project we’ve ever had, and I can’t think of one equal or greater since perhaps the First Great Train Robbery back in the 1970s, and was very welcome income during our covid closure. Also we asked them to leave various NIR branding items on 458, whilst not quite prototypical they don’t harm the look.

Fra the trolley fella was fairly realistic, to be fair…

Edited April 29, 2022 by Mike Beckett

[jhb171achill]

Very well said indeed, and an excellent description of the proceedings. As one who well remembers the 1978 Great Train Robbery filming, I am well aware of what goes on behind the scenes - even the two-part "Enterprise" programme which I assisted with last year involved a number of field visits and hours and hours and hours of doing one bit over and over again for the sake of 5 minutes on screen.

So, very well done to all on the DCDR - as you say, text-book strict accuracy is not what the goal is - the comedy entertainment of "normal"* people IS what's wanted, and it worked a treat.

Hopefully the DCDR made a few cents out of it too. That's the season's Tunnocks and Irn Bru paid for.....!

Here's to the next one!

(* = i.e. not railway enthusiasts!)

[Mike Beckett]

I resent that implication that we are abnormal, JB!

[Broithe]

Normal/abnormal - it can be a distinction worth avoiding.

 

I know a Bulgarian whose English is fairly good, but a few times in the early days, he responded to "How are you?" with a phrase that got him "funny looks".

There are many acceptable responses to that question - I'm OK -I'm alright - I'm not so bad - etc.

But, there is one which appears, on paper, to mean the same, but it doesn't, really.

 

"Hi, Miroslav, how are you?"

"I'm normal."

 

He does it deliberately now, to throw people off - but it is hard to actually explain why it gets you that half-second unblinking look.

[Colin R]

Hi all beside a few wrong techy bits, I find the programme very funny and that is what it is all about enjoyment, it is a shame that there have been so few good programmes that have been picked up by the BBC and other UK based media outlets on this side.

Sadly, I used to like the very first series of Red Rock, but I think it then lost the plot and quickly became another soap, for some reason I have not quite got in to Father Ted, yet what I have seen so far I have found funny.

I guess Irish humour is a bit like Guinness, it sometimes doesn't always travel well outside of Dublin (but that does not stop me from trying to find the best pint) .   

Edited April 29, 2022 by Colin R