DERRY GIRLS actress Nicola Coughlan has revealed the surprising inspiration for her pitch-perfect Northern Irish accent on the hit comedy series.
The Northern Irish accent is notoriously tricky to master.
All of which makes the efforts of Coughlan, who was born and raised in Galway, that bit more impressive.
The 32-year-old had a unique source of inspiration when it came to perfecting that particular accent: Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle.
Speaking on RTE's The Late Late Show, Coughlan explained how she modelled her accent on Coyle.
Or, more specifically, the moment she was caught faking her age on the Irish version of the hit reality series Popstars.
Long before Coyle became the face of Girls Aloud, she was being lined up to front the Irish pop group Six only to be ousted from the show after it was discovered she had lied about her age.
Coyle’s deception was revealed on camera with the Derry-born singer letting slip that she was 16 rather than 18 – the required age to be in the group back then.
Kicked out of the band, Coyle was encouraged to audition for Popstars: The Rivals by Louis Walsh, eventually landing a place in Girls Aloud.
Her Popstars mishap remains the stuff of Irish reality TV legend though with Coughlan confirming the moment helped her perfect her accent for the part of Clare.
“The only person I could think of from Derry was Nadine Coyle, and the only thing I could think of was her losing her passport on Popstars,” she told RTE.
"It was the biggest scandal. I think my mum still doesn’t trust her, she’s like “oh, you’d never know now”.
“I delivered that speech verbatim in the audition. Nobody wanted me to do it.” She explained on the show before going into the monologue.
“My name is Nadine Coyle from Larkhill in Derry, date of birth 15th of the 6th ’85, making me a Gemini… what date of birth did I say now? Then there’s a slow fade.”
