Remake for Gervais comedy

The Office is to be remade in Sweden, nearly ten years after Ricky Gervais first appeared as hapless boss David Brent.

Gervais has sold the format commercial Swedish broadcaster TV4, which has commissioned eight 22-minute episodes

Kontoret (a translation of The Office) will star Henrik Dorsin as boss Ove Sundberg. Dorsin is known in Sweden for writing and starring in a number of hit series including comedy Solsidan, from which his Kontoret character has been derived.

Gareth Keenan has been renamed Viking Ytterman and will be played by comedian Bjorn Gustafsson, who was voted Sweden’s funniest man in 2008.

Tim and Dawn have been renamed Erik Lundkvist and Therese Johansson – played respectively by Kim Sulocki and Sissela Benn.

Gervais said: ‘Sweden is a cool place for comedy. They really get naturalism and excruciating social faux pas.’

The original UK version has been sold to more than 170 territories and has been remade in Chile, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Russia and the US.

Gervais is currenly filming his new HBO and BBC Two sitcom Life’s Too Short.

Published: 3 Jun 2011