Derry Girls stars make guest appearance at Fatboy Slim gig

Actresses Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell joined the famous DJ on stage

Tickets to see the DJ in the city sold out earlier this month
Author: Chelsie KealeyPublished 23rd Oct 2023
Last updated 23rd Oct 2023

The famous world-renowned DJ Fatboy Slim was joined on stage by some famous faces in Londonderry on Saturday night during his sold-out gig.

Actresses Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell made a surprise appearance during the event at the Pennyburn industrial Estate in Derry.

Taking to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the popular DJ posted a video with the caption ‘Life imitates art as the Derry girls join me onstage, in Derry.’

The Derry Girls duo can also be seen blowing horns in videos posted online while flanking Fatboy Slim while he entertained a roaring crowd.

The organisers of the event JikaJikaDerry also took to social media boasting of the events success.

The caption said: ‘Still can’t believe how good that was?! 🤯

Maybe we should start announcing a few other dates for the diary.’

The show to see the DJ’s, whose real name is Norman Cook, sold out within seconds earlier this month.

The surprise appears by the pair was a nod to the musician’s guest appearance in the finale of the multi award-winning Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls.

The episode shows the cast gearing up for an exciting Halloween gig at St Columb's Hall with the group desperately trying to secure tickets at £20 pounds each.

The group manage to bag the last five tickets for what they call a “massive Halloween concert” by someone “bigger than God.”

Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin Quinn

Saoirse-Monica said of her character: "Erin is selfish, self-righteous, self-absorbed. She would do anything for herself, she would throw one of her friends under the bus. She's really out for herself as selfish teenagers are.


"She's ambitious, she wants to be a writer, she wants to move away, but in reality she's so much more naïve than she pretends to be. She pretends to be really worldly, and she has such romantic ideas of herself. But her friends are always there to remind her that they're completely untrue."

Louisa Harland as Orla McCool

Louisa said of Orla: "I would describe her as being very free. She has no inhibitions. She doesn't stop herself from thinking. She doesn't judge herself or others and I think she's a really lovely character."

Nicola Coughlan as Clare Devlin

Nicola opened up about Clare: "I always think of her as a bit of a Machiavellian genius. Lisa said she wanted to give her a really sensible first name, with a surname that implied she had the devil in her. Because she's a geek, but she's not a nice geek. She'd happily sell her friends down the river if she needed to.


"She's quite ambitious. I've met the real-life girl Clare was based on. It was such a bizarre experience. In this job, you meet a lot of people off the television, and famous people, but I was way more star-struck meeting the real, actual Clare than I was meeting any of those other people. I think she's got a lot of good intentions – I think Clare and Erin think they're the really moral, high-ground-based people, when in fact the other three are a lot more morally sound. But at the same time, I think Clare has a lot of love for her friends – it's always fun to see the dynamic between Clare and Michelle, because they'd never be friends if it wasn't for Erin."

Jamie-Lee O'Donnell as Michelle Mallon

Jamie-Lee says of Michelle: "Michelle really thinks she's maybe just a bit too big for the place she was born in and she's ready to take on the world one swearword at a time. She's really feisty, really ballsy, doesn't really care about authority, just sort of up for anything and up for a laugh."

Dylan Llewellyn as James Maguire

Dylan said of his character: "James is 'the wee English fella'. His mum is from Derry, and she went over to England to have an abortion, but didn't go ahead with it, so James is born, and grows up in England. Then his mum and him go back to Derry, where she just abandons him with his cousin and aunt. From then on, it's all an uphill struggle for him, because he's put in the all-girls school, as they're scared he's going to get beaten up in the boys' school, for being English. That's pretty much it, really."

Siobhán McSweeney as Sister Michael

Siobhán spoke to Independent.ie about her character in March 2019: "I think what I personally like about Sister Michael is what people are picking up on as well, which is her complete 'doesn't give a damn' attitude, her utter freedom. For me, when I think about her being a nun, I think only about the freedom it gives her. She's not restricted by social norms, she doesn't have to behave in a certain way. It's the freedom the uniform has given her to an extent. She is our id in a way, what we always wish we could say but cannot say. That is a gift."

Tara Lynne O'Neill as Ma (Mary)

Tara Lynne spoke about her character to the Belfast Telegraph: "The bits of truth Lisa has got in there that she obviously exaggerates or explores, I think that's why people are relating to it, and there's that essence of truth that we all remember. It reminds me so much of myself - it's totally the same. The soundtrack is my youth. Every song I can tell you where I was and what I was doing when that was playing. All these people in their 40s are watching it and saying 'I remember that, I remember this at the disco'. It's a great memory for everyone."

Tommy Tiernan as Da (Gerry)

Tommy spoke to YM Liverpool in January 2020 about joining the show: "I read the script and it made me laugh. It was as easy and ordinary as that. Gerry was originally written to be from the north (of Ireland), but I'm not brilliant at sustaining accents to a believable degree. I can do them for a minute or so but not over the course of a series. So I said to Channel 4, 'if you put a Southerner in that situation, it gives you good comic scope'. It's another reason for the grandad to hate the dad."

Ian McElhinney as Granda Joe

Game of Thrones star Ian said of working on the show: "He has some great put-downs for Gerry. There's been some great one-liners and I'm delighted to have them. Tommy is a fantastic sparring partner on set - I'd never met him before or seen his stand-up shows, and he's a lovely fella, so it was really nice to work together."

Kathy Kiera Clarke as Aunt Sarah

Kathy Kiera spoke about filming in August 2019 to Irish News, saying: "If I'm filming, I could be up as early as 4.15am for a shower and then out the door. Aunt Sarah is first into make-up. Obviously!" adding of her lunch times whilst filming, "On set, it will be the full works, with dessert, even if I have to squeeze into another unforgiving, skin-tight number favoured by Aunt Sarah!"

Leah O'Rourke as Jenny Joyce

Leah told Hello! magazine in April 2019 about working on the show: "I went to an all-girls Catholic school and we had two nuns working in it - one nun was very very scary and was intimidating and had some qualities of Sister Michael. It was so similar. I think when I first got the script I really related to it and I found that probably helped me in the audition because I felt I had experienced something similar."

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