US model for Creature Comforts

TV favourite Creature Comforts is to be remade in the US, it emerged today.

The series, which features clay-mation animals with the voices of ordinary people, will use coyotes and grizzly bears instead of sheep and rabbits.

It is made by Aardman Animations, the company behind Wallace and Gromit.

The pair have become stars in the US with their first movie, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, taking $33m (€26.8m) at the box office.

Aardman is to remake Creature Comforts with US voices and animals.

Miles Bullough, the company’s head of broadcast and development, told MediaGuardian: “Plans are at a very early stage but we are hopeful that we can create a fully US show.

“We are aiming to reflect America’s diversity so we’ll shape the shows in the US and they’ll be longer than the ones which show on ITV.

“Instead of sheep and rabbits we’ll probably have coyotes and grizzly bears or the American eagle. Try and tell an American what a stoat is and they look at you very strangely.”

The second series of Creature Comforts will air on ITV1 later this month.

News of the US deal comes a week after Aardman was hit by a devastating warehouse fire.

The Oscar-winning company lost hundreds of props, sets and models in the blaze.