Aired on Channel 4’s 21.00 prime time slot, the opening episode of the dystopian drama was watched by more than 4 million people, representing an 18% share, up more than 200% on Channel Four’s slot average. The 8X60’ show was produced by Kudos in the UK in association with Matador Films for Channel 4 and AMC. In an interview to the newspaper The Independent, Lundström said the English language version is “similar but it differs a lot as well’. “It’s not a carbon copy, which would be boring,” he noted. For instance the second generation robots used as domestic helpers are known as Hubots in the original Swedish series but ‘Synths’ for ‘synthetic humans’ in the UK/US version. AMC will launch Humans in the US on June 28.
Meanwhile to bet on the UK audience’s crave for premium quality foreign language drama and to tighten the competition with the BBC, Channel 4 has recently announced that a brand new online free delivery service, -4World Drama- will be available on its new digital hub All 4, starting this autumn. The service launched through a partnership with the London-based independent Global Series Network (GSN) will offer more than 500 hours of foreign language drama, such as the Swedish political thriller series Blue Eyes (Blå Ögon).
Channel 4 CEO David Abraham said: “We’ve seen from the response to titles like The Returned that there’s a real appetite for quality international drama from UK viewers – but only a small selection of foreign-language series have been able to get a UK broadcast partner. This new service will be a fantastic showcase for creative talent around the world and an innovative addition to All 4.”
Channel 4 and GSN plan to expand their World Drama partnership to other TV markets.
Tonight another Scandinavian drama is premiering on Channel 4’s digital platform More4: The Norwegian WW2 drama The Heavy Water Water, re-named The Saboteurs for the UK market.