Star Amy and Derry Girls roll into railway station

Star Amy and Derry Girls roll into railway station

4 May 2022

EAGLE-EYED viewers who tuned in for last week’s episode of the highly acclaimed Derry Girls on Channel 4 may well have spotted a very familiar Downpatrick landmark.

While the episode featured a day trip by train to Portrush, the scenes were actually filmed at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway last October and November.

Following the airing of the episode, the railway has released a number of images that staff snapped during filming which features all Derry girls regulars and guest star Amy Huberman, wife of former Leinster and Irish rugby international Brian O’Driscoll.

Amy joined Tara Lynn O’Neill and Michael Fry for among others for last year’s filming, pretending that a cold autumn week was actually a warm sunny summer’s day.

Filming in Downpatrick had been on the cards for some time and the coronavirus pandemic nearly saw the plug pulled on this particular scene.

However, a locked down film set was established with the cast and crew arriving in the county town to recreate a typical train trip on a Northern Ireland Railways train the 1990s which the heritage railway was able to facilitate thanks to its r450 Class ‘thumper’ railcar. 

The Derry Girls episode is the biggest and most complex filming contract for any heritage railway group anywhere in Ireland since the 1970s.

Filming took place across more than a week, with early starts and late finishes for the railway’s hard-working volunteers who were an integral part of the successful shoot.

Railway officials went to great lengths to ensure that every detail ahead of filming was 100% accurate and even reproduced a completely prototypical menu from a Derry Line 450 class railcar buffet carriage in the 1990s.

For those who missed last week’s episode of the series — entitled Strangers on a Train — which has caught everyone’s imagination, the Quinn clan and the teens embark on a day trip to ‘Protestant’ Portrush and and a stop off at the Big Dipper at the former Barry’s Amusements.

But not everything goes according to plan.

Clare, played by Nicola Coughlan, is somehow left behind and it has been confirmed that her time ion screen in the third series has been reduced significantly due to scheduling conflicts with Netflix’s fabulous Bridgerton series.

As expected, Strangers on a Train is packed with laughter with Clare and Sister Michael, played by the inimitable Siobhan McSweeney, end up having to wait together to catch a later train.

On board the train, the four other teens find themselves in a spot of bother when James (Dylan Llewellyn), lifts the wrong rucksack and discovers it contains Tayto crisps, a sum of money and a gun. 

They assume it belongs to a tattooed, vest-wearing hard man, played by Peaky Blinders’ star Packy Lee and come up with a ruse to return it, but not before Orla (Louisa Harland) eats the crisps.

James manages to reach the overhead compartment to make the swap and retrieve his own bag and it appears that the teens have got away with the unfortunate mix-up.

Comic Michael Fry performs the role a ‘trolley dolly’ determined to deprive the gang of their favourite treats, while Sinead Keenan as an ex-con and childhood pal of Ma Mary’s and Aunt Sarah also feature heavily in the episode.