Neil Maskell as Arby and Fiona O’Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde in Utopia Photograph: Channel 4įans of Utopia can hang on to this. The Office is the obvious example, where Ricky Gervais’s original tight two series effort was understood, unpacked and translated into a comedy that transcended the scope of its source material. Some are non-starters (Only Fools and Horses, Luther), while others swim around in development hell (The IT Crowd, Bad Education), but the rare few not only succeed but improve on the original. There’s always some trepidation when it comes to US remakes of British TV. Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, who worked with Fincher on the Gone Girl film adaptation, will be executive producer and showrunner. Now Amazon have stepped in – as they often do – to breathe new life into it, with a nine episode remake. It looked doomed to – like Freaks and Geeks, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Deadwood – become a show you’d learn to hate just because of the amount of times TV bores would bang on about how tragic its cancelation was. The problem was that HBO and Fincher fell out over the budget. It would be a big, meaty Americanised version of Channel 4’s surprise package. The cast was rumoured to include Rooney Mara as Jessica Hyde, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack, Jason Ritter and Agyness Deyn. Immediately after its cancellation there was a reprieve of sorts for fans, as David Fincher announced he would be in charge of a remake for HBO. In or not, popular or not, Nathan Barley or not, arguably, Channel 4 haven’t managed to match the uniqueness of Utopia’s pitch-black comedy and intrigue since.
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