A would-be music producer from Dublin believes he can make it big in Ireland by promoting a top-rate soul band, so he trawls a working-class neighbourhood and auditions unlikely singers and musicians to put together as a group. Alan Parker's urban comedy, based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, starring Robert Arkins, Andrew Strong, Angeline Ball and Maria Doyle Kennedy
The Barrytown Trilogy is an Irish comedy-drama media franchise centered on the Rabbittes, a working-class family from Barrytown, Dublin. It began in 1988 when Beacon Pictures and 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the 1987 novel The Commitments by Roddy Doyle shortly after it was published. The book was successful, as was Alan Parker's 1991 film adaptation. The film received cult status and is regarded as one of the best Irish films ever made. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked the film at number 38 on its list of the "100 best British films of the century", based on votes from 1,000 leading figures of the film industry. A sequel novel, The Snapper, was published in 1990, followed by a film adaptation in 1993. A third novel, The Van, was published and shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize, followed by a film adaptation in 1996.
