How To Get To Heaven From Belfast

“Can it have been four years since Derry Girls bade us farewell, with an 18th birthday party, an unexpected romance and — oh yes — the Good Friday agreement? Fans of the Bafta-winning teenage comedy set during Northern Ireland’s Troubles are likely to have high expectations of Lisa McGee’s new Netflix series, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. But they won’t be disappointed: the eight-part show tackles grown-up themes with the same unadulterated silliness that powered Derry Girls. This is Agatha Christie meets Marian Keyes, with a shootin’, bootin’ western twist.”
Laura Hackett, The Times

“Three middle-aged women may be all you need for anything. To run a business, raise a village, end a war, retool a civilisation, empty the loft. Even more usefully, you can make a great murder-mystery caper with them, as Lisa McGee (a fourth woman! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it) has done with her new series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. McGee made her name, of course, with Derry Girls – a nigh-on perfect sitcom that followed the trials and tribulations of a group of Northern Irish Catholic schoolgirls (and a beleaguered English cousin) as they went about the chaotic business of growing up in the mid-90s at the tail end of the Troubles. The main characters of the new offering don’t map precisely on to the previous one but the DNA of Derry Girls as an entity remains gloriously alive (is DNA alive? I feel a curious urge to consult Sister Michael). How to Get to Heaven has all of the verve, acuity and havoc dancing on top of the immaculate plotting that you find in McGee’s masterwork. The only difference is that one of the schoolgirls is dead. Probably. Maybe. Perhaps not.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The twist at the end of episode one is so good that I could not wait to dive into episode two. This is your new binge-watch. It bowls along with supreme confidence. When Robyn says, “We cannot under any circumstances get hammered tonight,” before visiting Greta’s home, you know full well you are about to watch the three of them drink their bodyweight in booze, hit the dancefloor and turn up the next day nursing industrial-strength hangovers. Yet the scenes are enjoyable rather than predictable, which only happens when the script is deft and the cast are cracking.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph