It was revealed in the last episode of Derry Girls season one, that Nicola Coughlan's character, Clare Devlin, was gay, and apparently Nicola was the only one of her cast mates who knew prior to the 'Secret Life Of A Lesbian' episode with the girl's 'provocative' newspaper edition in the finale.
Nicola Coughlan told Digital Spy that she was told about her character's story-line during the audition for the part, but was determined not to turn Clare into 'the gay character', which many shows are guilty of doing.
"I found out when I very first auditioned, so I’d known for about six months before the others,"
"So it had always been in my mind. It was always a very important part of the character. But I also knew that they didn’t want it… They wanted Clare to be her own person.
Nicola said she was 'honoured' to take on Clare's story, and was praised by the LGBTQ community for her portrayal of the character, with many people thanking her for playing Clare the way she did - as any normal teenage girl.
Nicola goes on to explain the shock of her co-stars when they found out, with Dylan Lleweylln saying;
"It was out of nowhere, I think it was the night before the read-through. I was like, 'Whoa, I didn’t know that'.”
Nicola also discussed how nervous herself and Saoirse-Monica Jackson, who plays Erin, were before shooting the scene when Clare admits it's her who wrote the anonymous letter in 'The Secret Life Of A Lesbian" finale.
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The revelation to Erin caused a divide in their friendship for the first while, with Erin reacting to it with "I’m just not into you like that, Clare'' - a classic Erin response.
The rift didn't last too long, and the gang were back together again in full support to end the series finale, leaving us in tears listening to the Cranberries cover of Passion Pit's Dreams.
Channel 4's Derry Girls will be back on our screens on the 5th of March.
