Episode 1

**Episode 1**, also known as **the Pilot [1]** , is the first episode of the first season, as well as the pilot episode of *Derry Girls*.

## Short Summary

It's the early 90s, the first day of school and a terrible start for 16-year-old Erin as she wakes up to find her cousin Orla reading her diary. And Granda Joe announces there's a bomb on the bridge.

## Full Summary

On the first day of a new school year in early 1990s Derry, 16-year-old Erin Quinn is annoyed by her quirky cousin Orla McCool repeatedly reading her diary and complains to her mother, Mary Quinn, about it. Michelle introduces her English cousin James to her friends Erin, Clare and Orla. Sixteen years before, Michelle's Aunt Cathy left Derry to obtain an abortion in England but did not have it and returned recently with her son James following her divorce from Paul.

Worried that he would be severely bullied at the local Catholic boys' secondary school due to his English accent and British identity, the education authorities make him the first ever male pupil at the Catholic girls' secondary school – Our Lady Immaculate College – which Michelle and her friends attend.

While walking to the bus stop, Erin is invited by her crush David Donnelly to a gig by his band. While on the bus to school Michelle threatens a first-year pupil while standing with James and her friends. After arriving, class prefect Jenny Joyce confronts the group over the incident. When Michelle refuses to apologise, Jenny reports them to Sister Michael, who gives them detention, causing Erin to miss David's gig.

In detention, 97-year-old Sister Declan, who is supervising them, dies while sitting in her chair reading Erin's diary, which she has confiscated. Sister Michael walks in on the situation as Michelle is trying to retrieve her lipstick, which Sister Declan also confiscated, Erin is midway through climbing out of a window, and James (having been prevented from using the pupils' and staff toilets) is urinating into a bin.

Family members of the teens are called to the school. James is disappointed to learn from Michelle's mother Deirdre that Cathy has moved back to London.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin Quinn
* Louisa Harland as Orla McCool
* Nicola Coughlan as Clare Devlin
* Jamie-Lee O'Donnell as Michelle Mallon
* Dylan Llewellyn as James Maguire
* Tara Lynne O'Neill as Mary Quinn
* Kathy Kiera Clarke as Sarah McCool
* Siobhan McSweeney as Sister Michael
* Tommy Tiernan as Gerry Quinn
* Ian McElhinney as Joe McCool

### Guest Stars

* Ava Grace McAleese as Baby Anna
* Mya Rose McAleese as Baby Anna
* Paul Mallon as Dennis
* Anthony Boyle as David Donnelly
* Maria Laird as Wee Tina
* Luke Wilson Hanley as Soldier
* Leah O'Rourke as Jenny Joyce
* Beccy Henderson as Aisling
* Barbara Adair as Sister Declan
* Amelia Crowley as Deidre Mallon
* David Ireland as Sean Devlin

## Notes and Trivia

* This episode scored 3.28 million viewers.
* The episode was well-received by many residents of Derry [2], and elicited such a positive response that Channel 4 recommissioned *Derry Girls* for a second series after the first episode aired. [3]
* According to Lisa McGee, the episode took about a year to write, the longest of any of the *Derry Girls* episodes, because she needed to find the “world, the tone, and the characters and the style of the show”. [4]