How to Get to Heaven from Belfast: a ‘highly entertaining ride’

“How do you follow a smash hit like ‘Derry Girls’?” said Rebecca Nicholson in the Financial Times. It certainly isn’t easy, but Lisa McGee – creator of the much-loved comedy about a group of school friends growing up during the Troubles – is back with a brand-new show.

“How to Get to Heaven from Belfast” follows “three old mates from Belfast”: Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne), Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher). Now in their 30s, the trio reunite for the funeral of another of their school friends, Greta, who died in an accident.

The four of them were “involved in something dark” two decades earlier, and haven’t seen Greta since, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Episode one ends with a “twist” that’s “so good I could not wait to dive into” the second instalment. A murder mystery with plenty of the “comedic brilliance” of McGee’s earlier work, “this is your new binge-watch”.

Fans of “Derry Girls” “won’t be disappointed”, said Laura Hackett in The Times. The “wide range of tones” the show straddles is a “little disconcerting” to begin with but persevere and your patience will be rewarded in “bucketloads”. Plot twists unfold “effortlessly” as the series builds into a “proper odyssey that spans Belfast, Donegal, Dublin, Derry and even Portugal”. And as the “high jinks get wilder”, the tale’s “emotional heart beats stronger too”. Beyond the laughter, this is a sensitive exploration of female friendship and the “devastating ripple effects of trauma”.

I found it “underwhelming and tonally disorienting”, said Ed Power in The Irish Times. The “patchy soldering together” of comedy and mystery is “neither funny enough to hold its own against ‘Derry Girls’ nor serious enough to be enjoyable as a mystery romp”.

The show does start to “run out of steam” as it reaches its conclusion, said the Financial Times. “But thanks to the charm of its leads, the wit of the script and the spirit of adventure, it is a highly entertaining ride.”