How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Season 1. Sinead Keenan as Robyn Winters, Caoilfhionn Dunne as Dara Friel, Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse Shaw. . Ten million. Christopher Barr/Netflix
Ahead of Lisa McGee’s latest comedy odyssey in Northern Ireland, she and the cast sat down in front of the audience at the BFI and previewed what’s to come in their spectacular new series.
For those unaware, Lisa McGee is a respected creator of Northern Irish comedy-drama dairy girlsA series based on the backdrop of the Troubles. After three great seasons, dairy girls Expires in 2022. But now McGee returns for a new outrageous and hilarious odyssey to the place she knows best, Northern Ireland. How to get to heaven from belfast.
How to get to heaven from belfast Follows three lifelong friends in their late 30s: Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), a popular TV writer; Robin (Sinead Keenan), a stressed-out mother of three; and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunn), a carer. After growing up and living separate lives, they are brought together after learning that Greta, the fourth member of their friendship group, has tragically died. Together, they travel together to express their condolences. But soon, old secrets begin to resurface and they discover that Greta’s death is not what it seems.
all eight episodes of How to get to heaven from belfast Dropping on Netflix this week. The new series’ creator and writer Lisa McGee, as well as director Michael Lennox and the three stars – Roisin Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunn – recently sat down for a big Q&A at the BFI, hosted by Charlie Girling, a journalist and a broadcaster. he was one Big discussion, and we’ve compiled all the highlights below.
All the highlights, news and highlights from the Q&A with Lisa McGee and director Michael Lennox
While the core cast may be different Derry Girls, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Many of the same faces have been retained behind the scenes, not least director Michael Lennox, who directed nineteen episodes. dairy girls. It shares much of the same DNA. “It’s been incredible to work on because it’s the exact same team behind the camera,” McGee said. “So to reconnect with all of them and create something more advanced – solving a mystery is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
The show immediately catches people’s attention, mainly due to its unique, long title. This was not the title McGee actually dreamed of. In fact, it was handed to him on a flyer… literally. “When I was a student at Queen’s University in Belfast in Freshers’ Week, a street preacher gave me a flyer with the title. And I didn’t go to the meeting, but I remembered it, and I thought it would be brilliant for something someday.”
For Michael Lennox, joining this project was no easy task. “When I read it the first time it was just this crazy thing,” he said. “This craziness comes from Lisa’s mind because her own DNA is like that when she writes in her work, and it’s a privilege to be a part of that show and contribute to it.”
He added, “It was a crazy shoot, but we had an amazing crew.” “We had a lot of people dairy girls. But it was not just me who was part of the directing team; we had george [Kane] and composition [Suri] Who’s here has done multiple episodes, and it just gets better as we go through the show. So this is an absolutely amazing Northern Irish crew, and Brian [Falconer] And everyone here—it was just one big film family.”
Filming in Ireland is special not only because of the people, but also because of the landscapes. “It’s an amazing place for filming,” he explains. “It has so many faces. You know what I mean, it’s epic. You don’t know what’s around – it can be mysterious, you know, it can be transcendent in places. So for me it’s a real gift to wander around and find it, and it’s like the place itself echoes what these people were doing and there was such harmony in everything, so it was fantastic.”
If there’s one signature of McGee’s work, it’s a dark sense of humor. The characters can find themselves in really serious situations, but there’s always a comedic spin. You laugh out loud, sometimes even guiltily. This comic is emblematic of Northern Ireland. He explained, “What I love about that kind of sense of Northern Irish humor is how quickly it moves from one thing to the next.” “What a scary experience they have when they wake up, and they realize something really horrible – that it’s not their friend in the coffin – but then they immediately start arguing over the fact that Darius loves lemon drizzle cake. It feels very true to me.”
The whole concept of bringing these old friends together, where they embark on a series of misadventures, is a very strange comparison in itself. “They’re like the A-Team but bad,” McGee said. “I always had this idea in my mind that this mom-wagon was the A-Team van. You know how the A-Team van got cooler and cooler as they kept adding bits to it? But theirs got even dirtier as they kept screwing it up.”
Although the show may be completely original, Lisa McGee couldn’t help but nod towards Derry Girls; There is one scene in particular that involves a graffiti. “There’s something that’s a little nod to Derry Girls, yes,” she teased.
Stars Roisin Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunn discuss their experience How to get to heaven from belfast
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Season 1. Caolfionn Dunn as Dara Friel, Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse Shaw, Sinead Keenan as Robyn Winters CR. Christopher Barr/Netflix
like a show How to get to heaven from belfast Lives or dies on its core cast. If the casting isn’t right, and the lead trio don’t have infectious chemistry, the whole thing falls apart. Thankfully, this series doesn’t fall into that danger. The trio of Roisin Gallagher, Sinead Keenan and Caolfionn Dunn have amazing chemistry.
When they first met, it was a particularly awkward process, as Sinead Keenan (Robyn) explains:
We had never met each other, and we were thrown in — like, it was in an office, like a casting room in Spotlight. And Lisa and Michael were there, and the lovely Liz Levin and Caroline Leddy were there, and our casting director was Carla Stronge. And there were plastic chairs, like you find in school, and plastic chairs made to look like cars. And we had scripts, and it was all like, “Hello, nice to meet you. Hello, nice to meet you. Oh, I’ve seen you…” And then it was like, “Okay, get in on it.” It was all chairs and props, walking, talking and pieces of paper.
All things considered, the casting room experience worked wonders. Caolfionn Dun (Darius) walked away with confidence. “I knew it,” she said. “Just from the reaction in the room. It wasn’t anything we were doing; it was the moment they started laughing at us doing very little. Which is a good sign in this particular situation – I would have been worried otherwise – but yes, the reaction of the three of us to everything we did was perfect. They laughed when we wanted them to laugh and they laughed when we didn’t want them to.”
Chemistry was never an issue. Roisin Gallagher (Saoirse) finds the key to what makes these female friendships matter. “People have talked about female friendships and what it is that makes them important, and it just occurred to me that women have an incredible ability to go straight to the throat in terms of conversation. It’s like, ‘Tell me all about your labor.’ Like, girl, that’s the kind of conversation we were having, you know?”
going back a team In comparison, the vote on who would be the best team member was unanimous. Look no further than Sinead. “You’re resilient,” Dunn said. “You’re not afraid of many things. You’re not afraid of many things any more than I am. Yeah, no, I think you’re just made of tough stuff, lady, and you can’t be bothered.”
all 8 episodes of How to get to heaven from belfast Streaming on Netflix from Thursday, February 12th.