Last year, on Thursday, January 4, Channel 4 launched what would become one of their most popular comedies to date. All anyone could talk about was Derry Girls… ‘Are you watching Derry Girls?’ ‘You must watch Derry Girls!’ ‘It’s got Tommy Tiernan as the dad! Tommy Tiernan!’

The raw, rampant gra surrounding Lisa McGee’s creation was so huge, it was enough to turn you off watching it all together — which, I’m afraid, something yours truly fell foul of. Indeed, I’d never watched Derry Girls until this commission.

Why not? Perhaps it was just a feeble rebellion, or maybe it was being saved for a mental rainy day. Or, possibly, I just didn’t want to see Tommy Tiernan shouting for half an hour…

Either way — with the transmission date for series two looming — not only am I trying to persuade you it’s worth all the Twitter hype, after finally binge watching it, I’m now convinced it’s not just The Inbetweeners set in a different town, in a different decade — but with added Tommy Tiernan, less vomiting, and only a few passing references to Clunge’s more familiar cousin, Fanny.

No longer do I wonder if the show merely had people guffawing maniacally around their couches because January 4 is generally when most people are in a post-festive doom spiral and, therefore, primed to laugh at anything. Okay so. Here are the reasons why Derry Girls is a bona fide hit.