The United Kingdom’s Sky One is said to be planning a new series inspired by the cult 1960s series The Prisoner….The show will not take place in the famous “Village” setting of the original — shot in the north Wales village of Portmeirion — the industry weekly Broadcast reported. But it is understood the themes of paranoia, conspiracy and identity crisis will remain, the BBC reported.

So it’s more like “something we wrote that on closer inspection is really just a Prisoner ripoff^* so we’re going to call it a remake instead?

See, we Americans don’t need to ruin classic British television shows by remaking them. They’re perfectly capable of doing it on their own.

Addendum: The Brits are also capable of creating their own original crap, too. No, I’m not talking about Coupling, the Friends ripoff with a lot more sex. (Although what I’ve seen of that isn’t very good either, and it’s not difficult to see why its American remake failed right out of the gate.) I’m talking about Space Cadets, set to air on Channel 4 in early December. In it, “contestants” will undergo weeks of training for what they think is a five-day orbit of Earth aboard a Russian space shuttle — but what is, in actuality, nothing but a hoax. In some ways, this is reminiscent of The Joe Schmo Show, in which “star” Matt Gould thought he was competing for the top prize on a weekly reality show, but where in fact all of the other contestants were actors and the show was essentially about duping him.