Peep Show to be remade in the US with female leads
Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's hit Channel 4 sitcom is being adapted by Community writer Karey Dornetto
Classic Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show is to be remade in the USA with female leads. Community writer Karey Dornetto is lined up to act as show-runner for the series, which has been commissioned for a pilot by FX.
The show's co-creator creator Sam Bain, who penned the series with writing partner Jesse Armstrong, announced the news in an article for the Guardian about gender diversity in TV and film.
"What would Peep Show have been like with women as the two leads?" Bain wrote, "it’s a great question – and it’s one I’ll shortly have the answer to, because there is a script in development for a US Peep Show with two female leads."
He continued: "I can’t wait to find out what sick and twisted bullshit goes on inside the minds of a pair of female losers."
Peep Show, which starred David Mitchell and Robert Webb as an odd-couple whose inner-thoughts were shared in gory detail with the audience, ran for nine series on Channel 4 in the UK between 2003 and 2015. In 2010 it became the longest running sitcom in the history of Channel 4, and the programme won a number of awards throughout its run, including a Rose d'Or in 2004 and a Bafta in 2008.
This female version of the show will be the fourth attempt to bring the sitcom to life in the USA. The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki was at the heart of a pilot version at Fox in 2005 which never took off, and US channels Spike and Starz also had goes in 2008 and 2016 respectively. None made it past the pilot stage.
Here's hoping this new version can produce a star as brilliant as Olivia Colman, who played Sophie in the original long before her becoming our Queen - and an Oscar winner.
