Writing
Roddy Doyle was born on 8 May 1958 in Dublin, Ireland. He is a BAFTA winning writer and producer, known for The Commitments (1991), Family (1994) and Rosie (2018). He is married to Belinda. They have three children.
Documentary about the 1991 film
Gaybo Laughs Back is an hour-long special, hosted by Gay Byrne who introduces some of the comedy highlights from his thirty-seven years at the helm of the long-running television series.
In a working-class quarter of Dublin, 'Bimbo' Reeves gets laid off from his job and, with his redundancy payout, buys a van and sells fish and chips with his buddy, Larry. Due to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well, but the relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo behaves more like a typical boss.
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
Sharon Curley is a 20-year-old living with her parents and many brothers and sisters in Dublin. When she gets pregnant and refuses to name the father, she becomes the talk of the town.
A young African boy with a haunting backstory starts school in Ireland and quickly finds out exactly what it means to be the new kid. Winner of Best Narrative Short at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar.
Brendan is an earnest, introverted schoolteacher who, aside from his participation in the local choir, has only one passion in his life -- the movies. That is until he meets Trudy, a woman who is gregarious and adventurous beyond his imagination. His entire persona changes as he becomes enveloped in her carefree and sometimes dangerous world.
This four-part made-for-TV drama focuses up close on a Dublin couple with four children. Charlo is a hustler, a head-first footballer, a thief, abusive. Paula drinks, objects to Charlie's thievery and adultery without the will to chuck him out. John Paul worships his father who's initiating him into the world of beer and football but recoils at Charlo's treatment of mum; asthma and misbehavior at school follow. Daughter Nicola is a young woman, starting work in a garment factory. When Charlo begins to stare at her, she's frightened and Paula's furious.
Mary is a 12-year-old girl with a passion for cooking, absorbing information from her grandmother, who is a wonderful cook. However, Mary and her family must come to terms with her grandmother's illness.
A mother strives to shield her young family from their new reality when their landlord sells the property and renders them homeless.