Northern Ireland

Derry Girls' writer Lisa McGee lands Bafta comedy award

Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee has won the best comedy writer title at the Bafta Television Craft Awards.
Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee has won the best comedy writer title at the Bafta Television Craft Awards. Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee has won the best comedy writer title at the Bafta Television Craft Awards.

DERRY Girls writer Lisa McGee has won an award for the Channel Four sitcom at the Bafta Television Craft Awards.

Ms McGee was named winner of the 'Writer: Comedy' category at Sunday's awards event at The Brewery in London.

The annual ceremony recognises behind the scenes achievements on screen, and is held separately from the main Bafta film and TV awards.

The Derry Girls writer faced competition in the category from writers including Holly Walsh and Jack Rooke, the writer of Channel Four sitcom Big Boys, which also stars Derry Girls actor Dylan Llewellyn.

Meanwhile, Derry Girls is in the running for three awards at next month's Bafta TV awards in London's Royal Festival Hall.

The show is nominated in the Best Scripted Comedy category, alongside Big Boys and BBC's Ghosts, while Siobhán McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael, is among nominees in the Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme category.

The finale of Derry Girls' third and final season, which was aired last year and showed the characters voting in the Good Friday Agreement referendum, is among contenders for the Memorable Moment Award, which is the only category that will be decided by a public vote.

Ms McGee, who last year was given the Freedom of Derry, said in a recent tweet: "We're up against some big hitters but if our finale was your tv moment of the year gis a vote here #DerryGirls."

She linked to the website where votes can be submitted until May 2, www.publicvote.bafta.org/po-cruises-memorable-moment.

Other moments in the category include the late Queen Elizabeth meeting Padington Bear at the Platinum Jubilee, and an episode of Netflix's Stranger Things featuring Kate Bush track 'Running up that Hill'.

The Bafta description of the Derry Girls finale moment states it "moves between characters we have grown to love casting their vote in the Good Friday agreement and archival news footage, including John Hume and fellow Derry citizens at the euphoric moment it was announced that 71.1 per cent of the Northern Ireland population voted yes for the Agreement".