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This is a story about an English couple who is happily married. They are Sean Lincoln and his wife Beverly. They are played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, who by coincidence are successful producers of another British hit TV show by the name of the Lyman's Boys. They also share a wonderful marriage along with a successful hit TV series. Things are just wonderful.
At a London awards ceremony they are powerfully wooed by a powerful and charismatic U.S. Network executive. The executive persuades them they should move out to L.A. and do a remake of their hit TV show and present it to an American audience.
They pack their bags and move to California. It's not long before they figure out that Hollywood is where a deal can be made and then broken with the same breath. Soon they find themselves clinging tightly to any creative control of the show as it slowly begins to slip away from them.
It is at their first studio meeting that things start unraveling for Sean and Beverly. Finally it becomes crystal clear that the president of this network has never as much as seen the show.
At this time Merc actually dismisses the elderly distinguished gentleman star for Matt LeBlanc of 'Friends' fame. He is charming and a bit manipulative and carries an entire grocery list of firm demands. Hollywood just isn't what the Lincolns believed it would be. However, Sean still believes he can run with the big dogs.
Now there is a complicated and complex triangle ensuing. Sean really likes Matt, but Beverly is not so much impressed. There are constant changes being made to the sitcom that threatens to cause damage to the show. Now all these added pressures begins to take its toll on their marriage.
The role of Beverly was originally played by Claire Forlani. However, she left in April of 2010 in the pre-production phase of the series. Matt LeBlanc was intended to play himself in a larger-than-life kind of way. Thomas Hayden Church came in to play the role of Merc Lapidus who was an American TV executive who actually commissions the remake. It turned out that he also had to leave the cast due to conflicts in scheduling. His replacement was John Pankow.
While most of this show was shot on the set in L.A. a lot of it got filmed in the UK. That included the 55 million dollar mansion 'Updown Court' that they used to represent the home of Sean and Beverly Lincoln. There were some inserts that were shot in L.A.
Stephen Mangan added a note to his Twitter page stating that the filming of their third season would begin in the Spring. Season 3 is going to consist of 9 full episodes that will be airing in 2013.
When the series premiered episode one in the UK, they enjoyed and audience of around 1.86 million viewers with an 8.5% audience share. Then episode two had 1.53 million viewers and 7.4% audience share. By episode four they were down even farther. Episode five experienced only a slight rise but once again the numbers began to take a nose dive. The final episode netted them 1.06 million viewers and 5.1% audience share.
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