Perhaps it’s finally time for people who are skeptical of U.S. remakes of beloved British sitcoms to see things from another perspective. Specifically, the perspectives of Minnie Driver and Amandla Jahava, who will play the still-unnamed protagonists of a U.S. remake of Peep Show, the cult U.K. sitcom famous for scenes filmed from the point of view of its main characters. On December 13, FX announced that it had ordered a pilot of this remake from What We Do in the Shadows and Atlanta writer and producer Stefani Robinson. Driver and Jahava’s casting was announced on April 13. The pilot won’t be a direct retread of the original but rather a new show that “takes inspiration†from “its unique narrative format.†Instead of following a pair of roommates, it will portray “the relationship between a long-suffering assistant (Jahava) and her boss (Driver), an emotionally unstable tech entrepreneur.â€
Peep Show aired on Channel 4 in the U.K. for nine seasons between 2003 and 2015, making it the channel’s longest-running comedy. It was an early showcase for the wry sensibilities of U.K. panel show staple David Mitchell, Fleabag stepmother-from-hell Olivia Colman, and Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. Armstrong and Sam Bain, co-creators of the original, will return as executive producers for the new pilot — joining Robinson, Dianne McGunigle, and Hannah Mackay and Ben Farrell of Objective Fiction, which produced the original series. Yana Gorskaya, who’s worked with Robinson on What We Do in the Shadows, has been tapped to direct.
Robinson’s pilot will mark the fifth attempt at a U.S. Peep Show remake — following previous efforts by Fox, Spike TV, Starz, and an earlier one at FX helmed by Community writer Karey Dornetto. Fingers crossed it sticks this time, so comedy writers don’t keep finding themselves in an endless cycle of pointless repetition like Mitchell’s character Mark with his morning toast.
This post has been updated throughout.