Teenage Cics steps back to when Margaret Thatcher was in power in Number 10, Ronald Reagan was ruling the free world and big hair and dubious fashion were de rigeur. Live Aid was about to happen and the Celtic Tiger was impossible to foresee.

Originally funded by the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and TG4, BBC Northern Ireland will now show this compelling and engaging drama.

The drama series is set in the summer of 1985 and is told from the point of view of Belfast man Danny Doherty, now 33. 

It poignantly recounts his experiences as a young teenager during his first summer spent at an Irish college in the Donegal Gaeltacht.

“The story is the real star, it’s a real charmer,” says Series Producer Pierce Boyce. “We see them fall in and out of love, make friends for life and enemies for the summer, experience many new things for the first time and ultimately go home very different people to the ones that arrived less than four weeks earlier.”

The series which was shot in Donegal and Londonderry was written and directed by Frank Berry and Audrey O’Reilly.

An all star cast reading like a who’s who of Irish actors includes Gerard McSorley, Britta Smith, Gavin O’Connor, Aifric Maria Walsh, Paula McFettridge and Seamus Ball. 

However the real stars are a host of exciting young actors who emerged from an extensive search of Irish language schools and drama groups of Northern Ireland. The producers trawled the country to find the best undiscovered talent and believe there just may be a few future stars among the first timers. 

The series was produced by Abú Media (NI) Ltd and begins on BBC Two Northern Ireland on Thursday, April 24 at 10pm.