Roisin Gallagher on Netflix’s ‘How to Get to Heaven from Belfast’: “I don’t think anyone’s going to be prepared for what happens”
As a brand new Netflix original from the creator of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee’s How to Get to Heaven from Belfast carries a certain amount of inbuilt expectation, which should guarantee that it draws in a lot of eyeballs when the eight-episode and almost impossible to describe series premieres on February 12th.
The last time McGee created, wrote, and executive-produced a comedy steeped in its Irish roots, it snowballed into a global phenomenon after the streaming service acquired the rights to distribute it globally. Naturally, it’s reasonable to assume that her follow-up will do the same, although Far Out may have accidentally increased the pressure on star Roisin Gallagher’s shoulders.
The actor, who plays the high-flying television writer and showrunner Sinead, seemed completely unaware of just how many people will have the chance to watch her latest starring role at the push of a button. For that, we can only apologise, even if those are the facts.
Alongside Sinéad Keenan’s Robyn and Caoilfhionn Dunne’s Dara, the central trio and lifelong friends reunite to attend the wake of an old schoolmate, only to discover that not everything is as it seems. As mentioned, trying to distil the series into a single soundbite takes a lot of doing, because there’s a lot going on.
It’s a comedy at its heart, yes, but it’s also a drama, a murder mystery, a reflection on growing older and growing apart, an ominous exposé of how some secrets will never stay buried forever, with a little bit of romance thrown in, not to mention a car chase, and a luxurious yacht. Oh, and there are a few explosions, too.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast may be a hard thing to quantify, but what remains inescapably true is that on the day it debuts on Netflix, the series will be instantly available to upwards of 300million people worldwide. That’s a big number, and one that Gallagher was seemingly unprepared for when we asked her how she felt about her latest performance being exposed to that kind of audience from minute one.
“Well, when you put it like that… I was feeling OK about it, but I don’t know how I’m feeling now!” she laughed. “300 and how many?” As of December 2025, the streamer had over 325million paying customers. “That’s definitely more than my mother and all my aunties…”
“All joking out, I am hugely excited, feeling really positive,” Gallagher added. “The brilliant thing is that it’s totally out of my control! I’ve done it. People are going to take it as they take it, and there’s nothing I can do about it, so fingers crossed! I am really proud of the work, and I’m really proud of playing another incredible, complex, clever, female Irish role.”
Production on How to Get to Heaven from Belfast commenced in the summer of 2024, with Gallagher’s casting officially announced that July. However, the series was initially announced in August 2023, the very same month that she was quoted as calling McGee “a hero of mine.”
With that in mind, it felt fair to ask whether being cast as one of the leads in her hero’s new series was down to fate, serendipity, one hell of an audition, or none of the above. “A combination of all three” was the answer, and while it’s a major milestone in the actor’s career, she won’t get ahead of herself.
As mentioned, Netflix turned Derry Girls into an international sensation and counts Martin Scorsese among its fans, which means, by default, that a lot of people who loved McGee’s previous work will be eager to see what she’s cooked up next. It’s got all the makings of a small-screen smash, but it isn’t something that Gallagher has thought about.
“I’m trying not to think about the expectations of others,” she said, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t supremely confident in the material. How to Get to Heaven from Belfast thrives on its unpredictability, and it’s become increasingly difficult to make something that’s as unpredictable as it is original, a feeling that she was struck by from the second she read the scripts for the first time.
“I absolutely was impressed by, as you put it brilliantly, the unpredictability and originality of the storylines and the characters and the twists and turns that just continue to keep coming right up until the very, very end,” Gallagher concurred. “It’s engaging and exciting, and there’s cliffhangers galore. So I think people will want to keep watching.”
One of the show’s narrative backbones is the dynamic between Saoirse, Robyn, and Dara, but the key to making audiences connect with the three leads is if they can fully buy into them having a friendship that’s lasted for decades. Gallagher, Keenan, and Dunne weren’t overly familiar with each other before the start of production, but it didn’t take them long to get into the groove.
“I think it was an instant connection of understanding the script, and the comedy and the nature of this friendship,” the former explained. “We all brought our own versions and experiences of that, and it was serendipitous, how well and how quickly, for me, that chemistry came together, and that shows on the screen, which is the most important thing.”
Not that it required any method acting, though, with Gallagher admitting she didn’t have to stretch herself to get into Saoirse’s mindset. “I absolutely have my own trio,” she declared. “Of two girls that I got very close with in school, and that we’re still in touch. And the brilliant thing is, the timeline is very similar. So when we flash back in the series, it’s the same clothes, music, fashion. All of that is really similar to where I was at that time. So it was nostalgic and brilliant to be a part of that.”
Those flashbacks, and the nostalgia that comes with them, will appeal to a certain demographic. For this writer, and no doubt many others, there’s a lot of 1990s pop songs in there that will have viewers of a certain age trying to shake the memories of many an awkward school disco soundtracked to overly enthusiastic cheese-mongering of the musical variety, and Gallagher is in the same boat.
“Yeah, it was so much fun, and it’s my type of music,” she boldly proclaimed. “The cheesier, the better. Spice Girls, Sean Paul, Scooter; all the best.” We’ll agree to disagree on that front, but as a Bafta-winning comedy writer, what everyone can definitely agree on is that How to Get to Heaven from Belfast‘s creator has a way with words.
Despite Saorise, Robyn, and Dara’s banter feeling so authentic and at times off-the-cuff, Gallagher shared that while they weren’t beholden to the dialogue in a word-for-word sense, the scripts were so good that there wasn’t much need to improvise, although adding unique touches and flourishes was welcomed.
“There was absolutely room for collaboration in every sense, the whole way through,” she offered. “From what I remember, it wasn’t really needed because Lisa had it all covered in the writing. So it really was all there. I don’t remember doing any improv whatsoever around the words that weren’t already on the page. So that’s really saying something. And quite a compliment, hopefully, for Lisa and us to feel that watching it, it was quite a natural, organic conversation.”
A key part of Saoirse’s character is that she’s been trying to distance herself from her roots. Yes, she’s a small-screen success story in London, but she actively bristles whenever it’s mentioned that she never truly managed to escape from the clutches of Belfast. Again, it’s something that Gallagher identified with.
“Embarrassingly, yes,” the actor confessed about those similarities. “The idea of being better, because one has left Belfast for the great heights of London, yes. Now, a long time ago for me, personally speaking, I did aspire and would have ‘had notions’ of getting out and getting somewhere better, where people knew, I don’t know, the difference between an Americano and a flat white.”
“I love that about Saoirse. I absolutely love that she is so adamant in identifying as somebody who lives in London, when she’s just a Belfast girl through and through.”
Roisin Gallagher
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast begins with the teasing of a mystery, one that’s central to everything that follows. From there, though, the series keeps its cards close to the chest. It weaves between multiple genres, epitomised by a high-speed chase through rural roads immediately following an awkward encounter with their dead friend’s family at their wake, which is a tricky tonal tightrope to walk.
Fortunately, McGee had a firm grip on the wheel. “I feel like the writing was structured in such a way that the motivations were clear,” Gallagher expounded. “The reason behind doing what we were doing and saying what we were saying was clear, and therefore the comedy that came out of it, the thriller, the whodunnit, the kind of questioning, and certainly the action that we find ourselves in, the environments that we find ourselves in, it was just a case of throwing myself into it and trusting that it was going to make sense and it was going to be OK.”
The star also hopes the audience is willing to take a similar leap of faith to get on board with the show’s many twists and turns: “I think that’s a great way to pitch the show is to ask the audience to keep an open mind and allow themselves to be surprised and not come in with an expectation of what it is going to be, because I really don’t think anyone’s going to be prepared for what happens.”
One subplot that simmers along in the background finds Saoirse’s personal and professional dissatisfaction in London at odds with her increasingly liberating trip back home. On one hand, it’s clear that things aren’t completely rosy with her partner, Tom Basden’s Seb, matters that are complicated by a flirtatious bond she strikes up with a local Garda, Darragh Hand’s Liam.
Both of those strands are unfolding in different countries between Gallagher’s character and two people who haven’t met, but they’re intrinsically tied together as part of the same thread. “Saoirse’s the type of person who deals with what is right in front of her, and often forgets about other things in her life,” she mused.
“Part of her lovability, for me, is that she keeps forgetting to put on this important piece of jewellery or engagement ring,” Gallagher continued. “If it’s not right in front of her, she may just have that bit of information falling out of her head, and that’s how she moves through her day. It’s not until later on that we start to see her, her own moral compass, I guess, her own reflection on what the consequences of her actions are, catch up with her, and that’s quite a moving thing to do.”
There are no spoilers to be found here, clearly, but there is a little bit of art imitating life. Saoirse’s professional malaise comes from her success; she’s the writer of a ratings-grabbing crime series, but it isn’t exactly fulfilling her artistic needs or desires. Not only that, but she’s playing an award-winning TV writer and showrunner in a series from an award-winning TV writer and showrunner, adding a meta angle.
“That’s what I fell in love with her over,” Gallagher gleefully exclaimed. “The first scene I read was her in the opening sequence where we meet her in the series, and she’s very dissatisfied with the disintegrity… is that a word? Unintegrity? Whatever the opposite of integrity is.” Neither of them is, but that’s not the point.
The actor sympathised with someone who isn’t happy with how they’ve become unaligned with “the real creative heart and soul” of their work, and one line drove it home. “One of the lines is, ‘I used to do theatre. I wanted to make theatre. What’s happened?’ And her agent reminds her that she needed to buy stuff. And so, there’s this real parallel between the reality of what that actually is for artists.”
“Saoirse is very much stuck between a place of wanting the money and the approval and the accolades, and also wanting to stay close to her roots, and that’s a very conflicting place to be.”
Roisin Gallagher
As you’d expect from an Irish series hailing from an Irish creator that’s populated by a largely Irish cast, as if the title didn’t give it away already, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is an unmistakably Irish affair. That said, it still trades in universal, relevant, and identifiable themes that anyone in any country will recognise, with Gallagher once again ceding the ability to hit that balance to the writing.
“No, I really do,” she maintained, even after Far Out mentioned her modesty. “I only go off what I’m given on the page, and to be in something where I’m continually discovering, even after the camera has stopped rolling, continually discovering that actually, this is also a story about Ireland, and it’s also a story about identity, and it’s also about belonging and letting go of collective traumas as a society and a culture, and also how we remember and misremember things.”
“On the day, what I’m doing is trying to remember my lines, and having as truthful a performance as possible,” Gallagher opined. “So really, the depth and the breadth of the work comes from the people who create it and have those images in their head in the first place.”
Gallagher’s first leading role on TV was in The Dry, which aired on BritBox and ITV. Her second, The Lovers, aired on Sky, and now How to Get to Heaven in Belfast will stream on Netflix. That makes the potential audience bigger each time, and while it wasn’t a deliberate part of some grand master plan to gradually gain more exposure, it’s nonetheless something that registers on her radar as a performer.
“Being honest, yes, it registers,” she agreed. “It changes the rooms that become available for me, it changes my opportunities. I’m really grateful that it was gradual. I’m really grateful that it is gradual. And there’s a part of me that, hopefully, this will continue to be gradual.”
“I don’t know that anyone’s career path in this industry is linear, and I know that the 15/16 years, probably plus, that I put in honing, which I still hopefully will continue to do, you know, I’ll never be finished with the degree of acting,” Gallagher observed. “I think that’s a continual thing.”
Not many actors would consider themselves the finished article, and she’s no different. “I do think that those years put in before I went on set or became visible in any sort of big platform have helped me keep a foot in what is important, what jobs are important, what stories are important for me to tell. That’s not to say that I’m not nervous.”
Once again, we can only apologise for mentioning how many subscribers Netflix has. “You know, your first question really did kind of make me feel like it’s happening to someone else,” she shared. “Day to day, I’m a mum of two young boys, I’m busy, I’m picking up the dog poo! Nothing really has changed in my actual personal day-to-day life, and I’d probably like to keep it that way.”
Along similar lines, during her career, Gallagher has worked in short films, features, ongoing series, limited series, and theatre, but she doesn’t have a personal preference. Instead, her focus is on being drawn to the material and the character, and the performance those two factors will allow her to give, regardless of the medium.
“It really is about the character and the writing and also the team, the people that you’re playing against and with, is probably more of a motivating factor than who I’m playing it to.”
Roisin Gallagher
As for what’s next? That was easy. “I would love to do a period drama,” she stated. “Please put that out there.” It’s out there now, and if there’s any such thing as a dream role, Gallagher knows exactly what that would be, too, and she’s ready to step into the shoes of an iconic role that’s been filled by the likes of Vivien Leigh, Jessica Lange, Rachel Weisz, Isabelle Huppert, Glen Close, and Cate Blanchett, among others.
“The one that’s coming to mind is Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, and it’s a theatre show,” she responded. “If I could go to a rehearsal room with that script and do that play, I think that would make me very happy.” Anything can happen in acting, but it didn’t seem fair to end our conversation with the How to Get to Heaven from Belfast star without issuing another apology.
Far Out gave her the fear about those 300million+ subscribers in the first place, and we’re sorry about that. “No problem, the truth has to come out!” Gallagher laughed. “I’m going to learn it one way or another!”
