How To Get To Heaven From Belfast is the best depiction of complicated female friendship you’ll see this year, and the nostalgic Derry Girls follow up we all need

Gather your mates, this trip down noughties memory lane is best taken with your oldest friends - if midlife responsibilities allow you that luxury

By Lucy Wigley

published 12 February 2026

in News

Sinead Keenan as Robyn, Caoilfhionn Dunne as Dara, Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast — (Image credit: Netflix/Christopher Barr)

If you think Derry Girls was one of the best shows ever to be gifted to the world, you don't want to miss creator Lisa McGee's epic follow up, How To Get To Heaven from Belfast.

If you love a heady dose of nineties and noughties nostalgia and love to reminisce about the days you just got to hang with your secondary school besties before adult responsibilities made continuing your friendships complicated, you also don't want to miss out.

In the show, we meet TV crime writer Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), glamorous mother-of-four Robyn (Sinéad Keenan), and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne), who has little else in her life other than caring for her elderly mother. They were once high school besties.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube

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The three have done their best to maintain some semblance of friendship since school was out, reuniting properly when the fourth member of their teenage posse, Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe) dies. Attending her funeral is a catalyst for the ensuing action.

While Saoirse, Robyn and Dara had all stayed in touch, they hadn't had contact with Greta since their school days.

Greta, it turns out, might not be dead - Saoirse is convinced it's not her in the coffin right off the bat. Flashbacks tell us that something really bad once happened to Greta when they were all teenagers, involving a burning building, a possible stalker, and mentions of murder.

There's also the recurring appearance of Satanic symbols - the same motif pops up on walls, in the ladies' memories, and as a permanent reminder of whatever it means to them by way of them all having it tattooed on their bodies.

Taking time away from the largely female responsibilities binding them elsewhere that prevent them spending more time together, the ride the friends take to find out to find out what happened to Greta is unmissable - the sandwich generation finally get to have some real craic.

And it's the renewal of their bond that fascinates me the most. Lisa McGee even wrote the show with friendship in mind, saying she's "obsessed" with the dynamics of female friendships.

Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse Shaw, Caoilfhionn Dunne as Dara Friel, Sinead Keenan as Robyn Winters in How To Get From Heaven From Belfast

Robyn, as a mother of young children, seems hyper-focussed on her appearance. Probably because motherhood has robbed her of any sense of identity.

At the point she's seen dreaming of smashing her face against her car's steering wheel as her kids have a backseat punch-up because "he's breathing," and "he's looking at me," you just know every mum up and down the country nodded in solidarity.

When she's berated by her husband for their child's birthday party not being properly organised, Saoirse is quick to quip, "why is it her responsibility," because yes, why is it?

Not only frustrated with her kids and life, Robyn is annoyed with her friends for not being as glamorous and appearance-obsessed as she is, causing hilarious friction between them.

Saoirse isn't encumbered by children, but by a fiance who only seems to care about himself, and the demands of her career - she doesn't seem like she'd care if both disappeared.

Poor, downtrodden Dara also lacks any identity, completely wrapping herself up in her elderly mother's care, not wanting to step out of this prison of a comfort zone.

That heart breaking pull of obligation to care for ageing relatives can be such a huge challenge, and while her story also plays out with humour, her loneliness is palpable.

It's a shame it takes for the death of a friend for Dara and the others to have any sort of adventure: "There's nothing like throwing a few shapes while reminiscing about your dead friend," is said as the women get to let their hair down finally at a club.

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast Season 1. L-R Michelle Fairely as Margo, Matilda Freeman as Maria, Ryan McParland as Feargal &amp; Emmett J. Scanlan as Owen

The toll being pulled in so many directions takes on female friendships is evident, and probably felt keenly by midlife women tuning in to the show - you'll see your own relationships reflected right back at you.

It's no wonder we have difficulty maintaining our circle of friends and things with them feel complicated and messy - maintaining relationships with mates takes work and it's not surprising they fail when doing that work gets pushed to the bottom of the to do list all the time.

Watching the show, I wished I could be drawn into my own murder mystery just so I could escape my life and have some time with my friends, reminiscing about playing snake on our phones while we walked to Blockbuster.

The action is punctuated with absolute bangers just in the right places, ("Sexy, everything about you so sexy," just as the local hottie takes his shirt off.)

The likes of Jamelia's Superstar, C’est la vie by B*Witched, Girls Aloud's Love Machine and the unforgettable bop, Gotta Get Thru This by Daniel Beddingfield will also unlock a fair few memories.

You'll be transported back to sneaking into foam parties underage in no time.

You'll want your oldest friends around you while tuning in to How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, simply to reach out and touch the nostalgia that only comes with being with people who were there for those teenage experiences in the first place.

This show is basically what would happen when the Derry Girls grew up, and as the secrets keep unravelling, you'll be desperate to work out what's going on and stay on the edge-of-your seat until the end.

It's like trying to work out who Gossip Girl was all over again but with Irish people and way more menacing supporting characters. Get it on your TV.

All episodes of How To Get To Heaven From Belfast are currently streaming on Netflix.

Lucy is a multi-award nominated writer and blogger with seven years’ experience writing about entertainment, parenting and family life. Lucy worked as a freelance writer and journalist at the likes of PS and moms.com, before joining GoodtoKnow as an entertainment writer, and then as news editor. The pull to return to the world of television was strong, and she was delighted to take a position at woman&home to once again watch the best shows out there, and tell you why you should watch them too.

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