Nadine Coyle Popstars tape helped Derry Girls actress for audition

Galway native Nicola Coughlan, who plays Clare in the Channel 4 comedy show, due to air on January 4 at 10pm, revealed at the recent premiere of the show in Derry: “My main source of help was Nadine Coyle. When I got the audition the only person I knew from Derry was Nadine, from when she got kicked off Popstars back in the day.

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“So I just listened to that tape again and again, like ‘I’m Nadine Coyle from Larkhill in Derry . . . .’”

Nicola said the Derry natives among the cast were also a big help. “The girls were amazing. Every night we’d go back to the apartment and I’d be like ‘I don’t know how to say this word and they were brilliant.”

Dubliner Louisa Harland, who plays Orla, admits she found the Derry accent “actually very hard to imitate.”