Mandarin makeover for TV hit Life on Mars

BBC Studios eyes lucrative Beijing market with plans to remake string of British television shows for China

IN THE hit BBC crime drama Life on Mars, detective Sam Tyler wakes up to find himself in Seventies Manchester. Now, the protagonist will awake in Nineties Beijing, in the first BBC drama to be adapted for Chinese television. BBC Studios executives are hoping to film remakes of some of their most popular shows for Chinese viewers, including Luther and Doctor Foster.

The original version of Life on Mars, which starred John Simm and Philip Glenister, saw a present-day detective transported mysteriously back in time, after a near-fatal accident. The success of the 2006 series spawned a sequel, Ashes To Ashes, set in the Eighties.

The BBC said the change of setting was because it was “a landmark decade as China became increasingly open to the rest of the world culturally”. It added: “The Chinese version of Life on Mars will reflect this remarkable era of change, conflict and challenges”.

There is no suggestion, as yet, how Glenister’s character, the furiously politically incorrect DCI Gene Hunt, will translate to a Chinese audience.

BBC Studios yesterday announced its new collaboration with Phoenix Entertainment Group to create a local Mandarin adaptation of the Bafta and Emmy-award winning drama.

It will be BBC Studios’ first partnership with the Beijing-based production house, which counts the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV among its partners.

David Weiland, the BBC Studios executive vice president for Asia, said: “We have a huge range of high quality scripted titles from Doctor Foster and Luther to Thirteen and In The Club – shows that would captivate Chinese audiences.”

Pre-production on the Chinese version of Life on Mars will begin this year, with 24 episodes planned.

BBC Studios has previously licensed the show’s format to production companies in Russia, Spain, the Czech Republic and South Korea.