Only Fools and Horses set for US remake

Only Fools and Horses set for US remake
Only Fools and Horses set for US remake

Classic BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses is to be remade for a US audience. The ABC network plans to make a US pilot episode of the British comedy, which ran from 1981 to 2003 and starred David Jason (pictured) as wheeler-dealer Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his dopey brother Rodney. The script will be written by Scrubs writers Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley, according to BBC Online. ABC said it would follow the same formula of two brothers who "concoct outrageous, morally questionable get-rich-quick schemes in their quest to become millionaires". It is hoped that the pilot will be picked up for a full series, which will be broadcast in the US later this year. There have already been many international remakes of the show, which was named the UK's greatest ever sitcom in 2004. These include Wat Schuift't? in The Netherlands and Brat Bratu in Slovenia, where Del Boy's three-wheel Reliant Robin car became a camper van. More than 24 million people tuned in for the 1996 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses, making it one of the most-watched programmes in the history of British TV. The comedy also spawned two spin-offs - The Green Green Grass and Rock & Chips - before its writer and creator, John Sullivan, died last April aged 64.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.