The Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee has spoken of her disbelief after the Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese revealed he watches the show.
The Northern Irish screenwriter shared a video of Scorsese, the film-maker behind Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street and Taxi Driver, speaking at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago in October.
Asked by the moderator what he was watching at the moment, Scorsese, 80, said: “I watched, the other night, Derry Girls,” before raising his fist in respect, prompting cheers from the audience. After a pause, he added: “Those nuns …”
Sharing the clip on Twitter on Monday, McGee wrote: “Excuse me while I drop dead and actually die a death.”
Siobhán McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael, the eye-rolling principal of the show’s Our Lady Immaculate College, tweeted: “Good morning. I’m ded.”
McGee, who was given the freedom of her home city for her work on the show, received messages congratulating her on securing such a high-profile fan.
The comedian Dara Ó Briain tweeted: “And that’s it, you win. Shut it down, people, we have a winner.”
The author David Nicholls said: “Oh my God! The dream. Congratulations, Lisa!”
The Channel 4 comedy, now also available on Netflix, centres on a group of teenagers growing up in Derry in the 1990s.
Set during the Troubles, the show was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of teenage girls, and built a large and committed following across its three series.
The Guardian gave the show’s finale a five-star review, saying the “perfectly proportioned ending tugs at the heartstrings, and delivers the funniest TV scene of the year bar none”.
The success of the show was even credited for putting Northern Ireland’s comedic writing and comic talent on the map, as the biggest ever cohort of playwrights, comedians and artists from the region took their work to the Edinburgh festival fringe this year.
Northern Irish writers pointed to a renewed interest from international audiences, with local comedians selling out arenas previously reserved for leading international names, and comedy nights and clubs rapidly increasing in number.
Earlier this month, directors including Francis Ford Coppola, Steve McQueen, Woody Allen and Tim Burton paid tribute to “the greatest director alive” ahead of Scorsese’s 80th birthday. “When I think of Scorsese, I think of all the uncomfortable moments in his films,” Burton said, while Coppola said the director “certainly joins the ring of the greatest living film-makers working today”.