'Friends', 'Office' pair unite for BBC3

Comedy heavyweights from the US and UK are teaming up on a new sci-fi comedy series for BBC Three.

Adam Chase, an executive producer on Friends, has written the show and recruited Ash Atalla, who produced the UK version of The Office, to help him make it.

Clone will star Jonathan Pryce (Pirates Of The Caribbean) as Dr Victor Blenkinsop, a scientist who creates the first human clone. The product is meant to be an elite super soldier, but turns out kindly and wimpish.

Chase, whose only previous work in the UK was for the two London Friends episodes, said his idea was too radical to be produced in the US.

"I'd been thinking about doing a sci-fi comedy for a while but was concerned about getting it through the American development process," he said.

"Clone is extremely violent - people die every week. [British] audiences are very sophisticated, and they have no problem switching form genre to genre."

However, the writer said the show's UK-sized budget - estimated at £250,000 per episode - came as a shock, commenting: "It was a dream come true. Then I saw the budget. Here you get amazing creative freedom and a tiny budget."