Welcome To Flatch director Paul Feig says it has 'more humanity' than UK original

America’s Fox network has released a new trailer for Welcome To Flatch, the US remake of This Country.

The broadcaster has today announced that the comedy will launch on March 17 at 9.30pm. And in a first for the network, seven episodes will be released on-demand on the Hulu and Fox Now platforms at the same time.

The series, which will comprise 14 episodes, has been directed by Bridesmaids’ Paul Fieg, who told Hollywood website Deadline he wanted his version to be less edgy than the UK original.

‘They’re very challenging characters,’ he said of Kerry and Kurtain Mucklowe, as played by British creators Charlie and Daisy May Cooper

‘We didn’t want to take that away from them, but we also wanted them [the US characters] to be loveable and fun, like the British one, but maybe give them a little more humanity.’

He said that was a lesson learned from importing The Office, which softened the character of Michael Scott after initially making him an almost carbon copy of Ricky Gervais’s insufferable David Brent.

Feig adapted the show with Sex And The City writer Jenny Bicks, while newcomers Chelsea Holmes and Sam Straley have been cast in the lead roles of Kelly and Lloyd ‘Shrub’ Mallett.

American Pie actor Seann William Scott will play the calm and optimistic Father Joe, based on Paul Chahidi’s Rev Francis Seaton in the UK original.

Fox’s blurb for the show says: ‘When a documentary crew sets out to explore the lives of residents in a small American town – their dreams, their concerns – they stumble upon the midwestern town of Flatch, which is made up of many eccentric personalities. It’s a place you want to visit and maybe even stay. If there was a decent motel. Which there is not.’

The Coopers are executive producers on the remake, which could net them a fortune if it becomes a hit.

Published: 13 Jan 2022