The latest attempt to bring Peep Show to US television has been abandoned.

Starz had been planning to bring the El Dude brothers Stateside, but – as Jeremy might say – those plans have turned from gold... into shit.

Sam Bain, who was working on the US version with series co-creator Jesse Armstrong, told Digital Spy that Starz "turned it down".

"I think adaptations to America are really hard," Bain said. "The exceptions – the ones that work, like The Office – are much more rare, because you're trying to change a show and keep it the same at the same time, which is quite weird."

Channel 4

Bain also suggested that any new versionwould struggle to replace David Mitchell and Robert Webb as tragic, co-dependent flatmates Mark and Jez.

"With Peep Show, we wrote the characters for Mitchell and Webb – we met them first and designed some characters that they'd be funny playing. When you have to change the cast, that's a really big issue, I think."

This was the third attempt to bring Peep Show to America and, though he wouldn't rule out another attempt in the future, Bain suggested that he wouldn't be involved.

"I don't think I want to get too heavily involved in remaking a show I've spent 12 years writing, to be perfectly honest," he said. "It's like, I've already eaten that meal once, I don't necessarily want to eat it all over again."

Sam Bain's new comedy Ill Behaviour begins Sunday, August 20 at 10pm on BBC Two.

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