Do you know your mucker from your craic? Your slabber from your dose? Get up to speed with Derry Girls slang before the sharp new sitcom set in the 1990s starts on Channel 4 - think The Inbetweeners in The Troubles with eyeliner

Every town has its own slang that only the locals understand – but if you're planning to watch Channel 4's new comedy Derry Girls, you've just about got time to give yourself a crash course in the 1990s slang used by Erin, Orla, Granda Joe, Aunt Sarah, Michelle and James are fluent in.

The series, written by Lisa McGee, is set against the spectre of The Troubles in Northern Ireland (not the first comedy background you'd picture) and looks at the everyday lives of ordinary people who just happen to live in extraordinary times.

Erin and her friends are used to seeing their country on the news and speaking in acronyms – IRA, UDA, RUC – they're also used to seeing armed police in armoured Land Rovers and British Army check points. But on the other hand, it's the time of Murder She Wrote, The Cranberries, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie, Doc Martens, bomber jackets, The X Files, Nirvana and Wayne's World. And while The Troubles hang over her home town, Erin has troubles of her own that seem just as important.

* Derry Girls starts on Channel 4 on January 4 at 10pm.

Derry Girls slang dictionary:

Bars: Gossip or scandal

Boke: Vomit

Brit: A member of the British armed forces

Broke: Embarrassed

Broke to the bone: Hugely embarrassed

Buncrana: A popular holiday destination

Buzzing: Very happy

Catch yourself on: 'Don't be so ridiculous'

Cack attack: A state of extreme nervousness: 'I'm having a complete cack attack'

Chicken ball special: A local delicacy

Class: Brilliant

Craic: Fun, but also news, for example: 'Tell us your craic?'

Cracker: Beyond brilliant

Critter: Someone who evokes sympathy, for example: 'You poor Critter'

Dose: An unbearable human being

Dicko: A general insult

Eejit: Idiot

Hi: A sound placed at the end of almost any sentence for no particularly reason, for examole, 'No problem hi'

Gone: Please

Head melter: Someone who causes you mental distress

Lurred: Absolutely delighted

Mind: 'Do you remember?'

Mouth: Someone prone to exaggeration

Mucker: Friend

No Bother: 'That's no trouble whatsoever'

Raging: Annoyed/angry

Ride (n): A very attractive person

Ride (v): To have sex

Ripping: Extremely annoyed/angry

Saunter: 'Be on your way'

Slabber: A show off

So it is/so I am: A phrase used for emphasis, for example, 'I'm delighted, so I am'

Start: To provoke, for example, 'Don't start me'

Stall the ball: 'Stop what you're doing immediately'

Tayto cheese and onion sandwich: A local delicacy

Wain: A child or young person

Watch yourself: Take care

Wile: Very or terrible

Wise up: 'Don't be so stupid and/or immature'

Yes: Hello