ONE TO WATCH Roddy’s world

Return To Barrytown, Sunday, RTÉ One

It’s been 30 years since the world was introduced to Barrytown. This fictional Dublin suburb and its characters were a microcosm, not only of Dublin or Ireland at that time, but of ordinary lives: their dreams and ambitions, their triumphs and failures – all of it documented in Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van. Now, three decades on, the actor Colm Meaney (who played the central father figure in all three films) explores the world of Barrytown: the people who populated it, the real lives that inspired it, and those who helped create it.

Back to Barrytown is a series of three documentaries that will focus on the stories, themes and characters of each of the three books and subsequent hugely popular movies. The series will feature many of the well-known cast and crew from the film trilogy including the author Roddy Doyle, Colm Meaney, Brendan O’carroll, Angeline Ball, Robert Arkin and Stephen Frears. Bleedin’ deadly.