Derry Girls

In the last ever episode, Orla and Erin's 18th birthday was in threat of being overshadowed - by the Good Friday Agreement referendum.

As Erin said, in a monologue to James’s camcorder, “things can’t stay the same… The Troubles has always been a backdrop to the teenagers’ lives – occasionally scary, often inconvenient and nothing compared to the drama of trying to get to a Take That concert. Only in Derry Girls would the two be presented as almost equally life-changing.

Chelsea takes in the mail with a smile and starts reading the letter that the main characters – Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle ...

I’m delighted to say we’ll be returning for one extended special – airing in the same week as our final episode. Chelsea takes in the mail with a smile and starts reading the letter that the main characters – Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), Orla (Louisa Harland) and James (Dylan Llewellyn) – wrote her in the final episode of season two. To see out the third and final series of the comedy, Channel 4 aired an extended special set around the Good Friday Agreement – and it did not disappoint.

This perfectly proportioned ending tugs at the heartstrings, and delivers the funniest TV scene of the year bar none. Rarely does a comedy bow out on such a ...

This does not downplay the magnitude of the shifting political landscape (and what better time to be reminded of it) but plays it out as it affects ordinary people’s lives, which is smart and touching. It is Orla and Erin’s joint 18th birthday party, and the Good Friday agreement referendum is taking place. (To its credit, Derry Girls has tried to make a virtue out of Nicola Coughlan’s clear lack of availability for filming, owing to a Bridgerton clash; almost every episode has involved a guessing game as to how Clare might not make it to whatever mess they’ve got themselves caught up in.) It pulls at the heartstrings but avoids being too cheesy, so when it goes for the big dramatic moments, it almost always lands them. It’s the ultimate in 90s nostalgia, from its soundtrack to the Claire Danes in Romeo and Juliet idolisation to queueing at a record shop to pick up tickets made out of paper. The final series of Derry Girls (Channel 4) has been a triumph.

The past four years have been an emotional journey for Erin, Michelle, Clare, Orla and James, of course, and Wednesday night's big finale did not disappoint.

You can see some of the social media reaction to the big finale below... And it's not just the fans who are heartbroken the hit show has come to a end. It's the end of an era - Derry Girls has aired for the final time...

Derry Girls aired its final ever episode on Wednesday night and featured a major celebrity cameo that left fans floored…

"Like many, I am a big fan of the series, and I was honoured to be able to appear in the very special final episode. I then tried people in Queen’s University and eventually it was a manager in America who used to work for the Clintons. She acted like this middlewoman for us and she rang me one night and was like 'Chelsea’s in!' and I was like ‘Oh my God!' I was trying everywhere, it was embarrassing, I even contacted some politician in America who was not a Clinton fan and I thought because they were all Democrats, it would be all lovely and they get on.