DERRY GIRLS has added to its growing list of accolades after it was named Radio Times Comedy Champion on Tuesday night following a nervy finale.
At May’s Irish Film and Television Academy awards, the Channel 4 show won the Gala Award for Best Comedy, while writer Lisa McGee took the Best Writer in a Comedy or Soap award.
Now the viewers have had their say with the sitcom seeing off the BBC’s Inside No 9 to be voted the Radio Times Comedy Champion.
Well, it's OFFICIAL! Congratulations to our Comedy Champions #DerryGirls! And a massive well done to #InsideNo9 for an absolutely incredible final. You're ALL Champions! Now give those eyes and clicking fingers a well deserved rest! https://t.co/hbNonFlTaf pic.twitter.com/ar943IVE1D
— Radio Times (@RadioTimes) 31 July 2018
However it was an unbelievably tight finish with Derry Girls taking 50.1 per cent of the vote with 462,946 votes to its rival's 461,140.
The show emerged victorious from a long-list of 40 comedies, seeing off Irish competition from Mrs Brown’s Boys and The Young Offenders as well as Sharon Horgan’s Catastrophe.
The Young Offenders made it to the semi-finals while the other two were eliminated at the quarter-final stage of the competition, run by RadioTimes.com.
Viewers have been voting in the competition for the past week, with the two finalists going head to head in the 24 hours up to 10pm on Tuesday.
The stars of the show were delighted as the result was revealed, with creator McGee leading the celebrations.
Thank you all! https://t.co/H65HNbkhaG
— Lisa McGee (@LisaMMcGee) 31 July 2018
YOU BEAUTIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE DID IT!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/R2wo9jq8X4— Nicola Coughlan (@nicolacoughlan) 31 July 2018
Thank you to everyone who voted for #derrygirls we are BUZZING !!!!!!!!
— Saoirse-Monica Jackson (@SaoirseJackson) 31 July 2018
Wow! @RadioTimes thank you everyone! @LisaMMcGee all you
— Louisa Harland (@louisa_harland) 31 July 2018
Cheers for all the votes folks, really appreciated! Xxxx
— Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (@JamieLeeOD) 31 July 2018
Nearly a hiccup with the voting but we got there thank you so much everyone! #BehindTheScenes #DerryGirls pic.twitter.com/Vj3vm04Rdf
— Dylan Llewellyn (@Djllewellyn) 31 July 2018
The sitcom, which follows the lives of four schoolgirls in Derry during the 1990s, has been a ratings hit for Channel 4.
With an average audience of 519,000 in Northern Ireland, it reached a total of 54 per cent of the possible TV audience.
In Britain, the series was watched by an average of 2.5 million viewers, making it the British boradcaster's biggest comedy launch since 2004.
A second series has already been commissioned and is expected to start filming later this year
