What you may not remember, however, is the Japanese Super Sentai series which the show was based on, even though you probably watched quite a lot of it without even noticing early seasons of Power Rangers actually featured battle footage from the original Japanese show, as the only footage filmed with American actors was that which featured in the story sequences.

Shameless
 
UK audiences were preparing for the ultimate cringe fest as everyone expected a rather diluted American counterpart to one of Britain’s most loved TV shows. Shameless did, however, catch everyone by surprise with a remarkably faithful and still very much rough-around-the-edges interpretation, perhaps aided by the guidance of the original series creator Paul Abbott.

The show has received great critical acclaim from both American and UK critics, becoming one of HBO’s most successful productions. The show has been recently commissioned for a second series.

Wilfred
 
Elijah Wood stars in Wilfred as Ryan, a suicidal young man who attempts to kill himself several times in the first episode. Ryan's neighbour, Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann), asks him to look after her dog for the day, only to be taken aback as he sees Wilfred as an Australian man in a dog suit, while everyone else sees Wilfred as just a dog.

Premiering in BBC3 last August (at the same time when it was commissioned for a second series), Wilfred is based on the Australian show of the same name, which incidentally also stars the same Australian actor (Jason Gann, who doubles as the show’s creator) in the title role.
 
Three’s Company
 
Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t realize this American classic was a UK remake - we were a little surprised, too. Man about the House was successful in Britain, but it didn’t become a blueprint for future shows the way Three’s Company did here.

British audiences found the premise somewhat shocking - a man sharing a flat with two women was terribly improper - but in the aftermath of the 1960s, American audiences were more receptive to the idea and found the humor an incisive reflection of the freewheeling 1970s.

Most importantly, the show introduced the world to John Ritter, who remained a beacon of American comedy until his sudden death in 2005. Watching Three’s Company now is like being in a time capsule, and we bet they’re mighty jealous across the pond.

In Treatment
 
An unusual and emotional series, In Treatment brings a dynamic new focus to a staple of modern society - the psychotherapy session. The award-winning series stars Gabriel Byrne and is set within the intimate confines of individual psychotherapy sessions with five sets of patients.

Paul (Byrne) is a therapist who exhibits an insightful, confident demeanour when treating his patients, but displays a crippling insecurity while counselled by his own therapist, Gina (Dianne Wiest).

In Treatment is not entirely a plunge into the unknown, however. The show is the American version of Be’ Tipul, one of Israel’s most successful and most talked about dramas ever, with a structure very close to the original but with minor adjustments: a patient is a combat veteran of the Iraq war, not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Killing is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now

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