A British Cheers Remake? The UK Already Has the Perfect Pub-Set Sitcom

An Australian version of The Office. A German version of Ghosts. An American version of Mitchell & Webb-starring comedy Back… another day, another announcement of a sitcom international remake. With scripted comedy’s backs currently against the wall and UK TV commissioning at a low, remakes with their built-in audience recognition and ready-made publicity, make safer bets than risky originals. 

The latest, as reported by Deadline, is a British version of NBC comedy Cheers, the Boston bar-set sitcom that ran from 1982 – 1993. Big Talk Pictures has lined up Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye to adapt the premise for a UK setting. (If he’s going for realism and not planning a period piece, Nye had better hustle because despite our undeniable appetite for booze, the UK pub industry is not thriving. Over 50 pubs a month closed in the first half of 2024 alone.)

In short: why bother. If it’s a British version of Cheers you’re after, then one already exists in the form of Craig Cash and Phil Mealey’s excellent comedy Early Doors. No, it didn’t run for over a decade and make household names of its barfly characters, but it deserved to, and has all the wit, wisdom, laughs and melancholy of Glen and Les Charles’ Cheers. Plus: it stars a very fresh-faced James McAvoy.

Set entirely inside Stockport pub The Grapes, Early Doors is a half-hour Northern comedy that’s a spiritual successor to The Royle Family. It’s more than a spiritual successor in fact, because it was written by The Royle Family’s co-creator Craig Cash and writer Phil Mealey. Imagine what goes on when Jim and Dave from that show leave the Royle house for one of their regular visits to The Feathers, and that’s Early Doors. 

The Grapes is run by landlord Ken (John Henshaw), and it’s the kind of place where everybody knows your name, but they wouldn’t go so far as to be glad you came. There’s a cast of regulars – hapless Joe and womaniser Duffy (creators Cash and Mealey), miseryguts miser Tommy (Rodney Litchfield), divvy couple Eddie and Joan (Mark Benton and Lorraine Cheshire), plus Ken’s mother Jean (Rita May) and step-daughter Melanie (Christine Bottomley). Others, including Maxine Peake’s Janice and James McAvoy’s Liam, and corrupt plods Phil and Nige (James Quinn and Peter Wight) come and go, but the scene rarely changes. 

It’s drily funny, cleverly observed and totally recognisable to anybody old enough to have drunk in a pre-smoking ban UK pub. The dialogue rolls smoother than a 10 pence piece into a jukebox (the one in The Grapes does a great line in Madchester classics, incidentally), and the characters are beautifully played by a talented comedy cast. It’s cynical but playful, taking the mick out of its characters like only a true friend could, and drops in the odd moment of caustic satire and genuine emotion. 

All 12 episodes of Early Doors’ two series are available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK. If you’ve yet to see it, then before running to another remake, rectify the situation and join us in raising a glass: to the regiment!