Richard Ayoade Repeating Himself In The USA

The NBC are remaking Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd - as you probably knew. I mean, the UK-to-US sitcom remake path is well trodden but rarely yields exciting results. Now, though, a glimmer of interest as it has been revealed that Richard Ayoade is to reprise his role as the wonderfully overcoiffed Moss, whereas Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson have been ditched in favour of Joel McHale, sometime host of The Soup, and Jessica St. Clair who can be seen in For Your Consideration.

Oddly, St. Clair appeared in a TV show called Smoking Gun and McHale was in Kuntz and Maguire's ill-fated Onion Movie - not entirely dissimilar projects. Factor in Aoyade's turns in Time Trumpet and you've pretty much got a hat trick.

Ayoade is really quite superb - he was easily the best thing about Nathan Barley - and I'm pleased to see him get this profile boost, though I expect he'll be lambasted for taking the opportunity and get chalked up as a sell-out. Good luck to him, though. I dare say he'll be directing episodes of the US series before long, and soon after that find himself in charge of a feature film. A Garth Marenghi movie, anyone?

In the UK IT Crowd, Chris Morris appeared as Denholm, the very, very odd boss character. I'm almost certain that somebody has thought of Conan O'Brien for this role in the remake - his guest spot in Andy Richter Controls the Universe guarantees he'd nail it. Here's hoping.