Netflix Greenlights 'Jig': Lisa McGee Takes on Competitive Irish Dancing in New Mockumentary Comedy

Netflix has ordered Jig, a mockumentary comedy set in the high-stakes world of competitive Irish dancing, from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee. The announcement came on 26 August at the Edinburgh TV Festival, as part of a slate of new Netflix commissions (The Hollywood Reporter).

The six-episode series centres on best friends Cara and Fletcher, members of a struggling dance school in Derry with their eyes on the world championships. Their sworn rivals are a slick, sponsored, seemingly unbeatable operation based in Florida — a pairing that sets up a classic underdog dynamic across the Atlantic.

McGee is writing the series and will executive produce alongside Liz Lewin, Caroline Leddy and Suzanne Mackie. Orchid Pictures is producing. Casting has not yet been announced.

This is McGee's third series for Netflix, following Derry Girls — the Northern Ireland-set sitcom that ran for three series and built a devoted following — and How to Get to Heaven From Belfast. She is also developing Wildwood, a U.S.-set series, with FX and 20th Television, meaning her work now spans both sides of the Atlantic.

Filming on Jig is set to begin next year in Northern Ireland. No release date has been given.

For viewers who found Derry Girls through Netflix, the appeal is straightforward: McGee returning to a Derry setting, this time trading schoolgirl chaos for the world of competitive dance. The mockumentary format — think The Office or Parks and Recreation, where characters perform for a documentary camera — gives the premise a natural engine for comedy, and the real-world arena of Irish dancing, with its fierce rivalries and dedicated subculture, provides plenty of material to work with.

No streaming date, no cast, no first-look footage yet. What exists is a greenlight, a writer with a proven track record, and a premise that puts a Derry dance school up against a Florida juggernaut. For now, that is the story.