Derry Girls filming kicks off Monday…but Clare is missing!

FILMING of the third series of Derry Girls is to get underway in the North of Ireland today, Monday, September 27 – with one key cast member expected to be missing from the set.

Nicola Coughlan, who plays the high-energy Clare Devlin in the hit Channel 4 coming-of-age comedy, is currently shooting series two of the lavish Netflix drama Bridgerton, with production due to wrap up in the coming weeks.

But fans of Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls needn’t worry – Coughlan will definitely be back on set and reunited with the rest of the cast once she shoots her final scenes in the raunchy period drama.

The Galway-born actress, who portrays Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton, posted on Twitter that her scenes in Derry Girls would be put back until production on the Netflix drama – the streamer’s biggest ever success story – was wrapped.

In response to a question from a fan about the timing of the new Derry Girls shoot – the third and final series – Coughlan wrote: “So Derry Girls will start filming anything I’m not in first while I finish Bridgerton, the moment I wrap I’ll take off the corset and get back into the green uniform.”

The news that she will be back in Northern Ireland once Bridgerton is wrapped was welcomed by fans of both shows.

One viewer wrote: “Of course you need to get back as quickly as you an because you ‘must be as one’. Derry Girls is a treasure, as are you.”

Another wrote: “I’m sooo glad you’re going to be in Derry Girls and Bridgerton. Fame hasn’t changed you. Derry Girls wouldn’t be the same without you.”

A third fan posted that both Coughlan’s roles had provided plenty of light moments during lockdown.

She wrote: “You are an absolute gem, whether in corset or green uniform. Thank you for all of the laughs during these past many months of lockdown and darkness.”

Last week Derry Girls’ creator McGee revealed that the show would be hitting its series finale this time round, saying “it was always the plan to say goodbye after three series.”

She spoke of her excitement to start production, which was postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and described Derry Girls as a ‘love letter to the place I come from and the people who shaped me.”

The series, which also stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell and Dylan Llewellyn, has given Channel 4 its most successful comedy since Father Ted.

Its popularity has also helped put many of its cast on the map, particularly Coughlan.

Bridgerton was watched by a whopping 82 million households in the first month alone. It has become a television phenomenon, with series three and four already confirmed.

Coughlan was one of several cast members to unveil the first-look teaser for the highly anticipated second series and to take part in TUDUM; a Netflix Global Fan Event outlining the highlights of the coming season.

The trailer, which dropped at the weekend, debuted a new face, Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley.

Introducing the trailer, Coughlan and co-star Jonathan Bailey, who plays lothario Anthony Bridgerton, jokingly warned fans ‘prepare thyself’.

In an interview last year, Coughlan compared her Bridgerton role to her Derry Girls character, saying she liked to go ‘from one thing to another that’s quite different’.

“I think that’s the joy of acting, getting to play lots of different roles. Penelope and Clare are really worlds apart,” she said.

“Clare is super high energy and says everything that’s on her mind, whereas Penelope rides a steady wave, but she observes everything, she takes everything in.

“And going from comedy to drama is a dream. Really, I feel so lucky with the parts I’ve gotten.”

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