Friday Night Dinner to be re-made by Amazon as Dinner With The Parents
- Freevee, Amazon's free streaming service, is making a new version of hit Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner
- 10 episodes of Dinner With The Parents are to be filmed, overseen by Late Show With David Letterman writer Jon Beckerman
- Although the series will be set in the USA, the episodes are due to be filmed in the UK at studios near Reading
Amazon Freevee has ordered a 10 episode series of Dinner With The Parents, a remake of Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner.
Freevee, the American corporation's free streaming service previously known as IMDb TV, has made the straight-to-series order with CBS Studios and UK production company Big Talk.
Jon Beckerman, who worked as the head writer on over 200 episodes of Late Show With David Letterman has been signed up to act as the showrunner on the project.
Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper will act as an executive producer on the series, alongside Big Talk executives Kenton Allen, Matthew Justice and Caroline Leddy.
Director Tristram Shapeero, who started his career on shows such as Smack The Pony, Peep Show and I'm Alan Partridge before moving to the US to work on sitcoms such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Superstore, will oversee the shoot.
Despite being set in America, the episodes will be filmed in the UK this autumn, at the new Winnersh Studios near Reading in Berkshire.
The producers describe the plot as follows: "In this half-hour single camera comedy, two brothers in their 20s who go to their mom and dad's for dinner each week, somehow get through it without actually, physically, dying of embarrassment. If your 54-year-old dad has ever 'dabbed' while shirtless in front of your girlfriend, or your mom won't stop bringing up that time when you had to be rushed to the pediatrician after an incident with a shampoo bottle, which is why your brother still calls you 'Pert Plus', you will relate to this show. If not, must be nice!"
The series order follows three previous attempts to remake Friday Night Dinner in the US. NBC made a pilot in 2011 starring Tony Shalhoub, and CBS undertook development on versions in 2014 and 2016.
The multi award-winning Friday Night Dinner launched on Channel 4 in 2011. Starring Paul Ritter, Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal and Mark Heap it ran for 37 episodes across six series, concluding in 2020.
Popper is now working with the Big Talk producers on I Hate You, a sitcom starring Tanya Reynolds and Melissa Saint as two best friends in their 20s, which focuses on the characters' "intense, messy friendship in today's intense, complicated world". The six-part series is expected to begin on Channel 4 in August.
Casting details for Dinner With The Parents will be revealed at a later date.