Life on Mars 'will be US series'

Philip Glenister and John Simm played DCI Gene Hunt and DI Sam Tyler

US network ABC has decided to press ahead with a full series of time-travel drama Life on Mars, which is being remade for American TV, reports say.

A pilot episode was written by Ally McBeal creator David E Kelley, who had bought the rights to the show.

The Hollywood Reporter said ABC had now ordered an extended run, with Irish actor Jason O'Mara in the lead role.

The programme starred John Simm and Philip Glenister when it was originally shown in the UK.

O'Mara will take Simm's role as a modern-day police officer who is transported back to the 1970s.

The original version of Life on Mars won a Bafta last year and the finale of the show was seen by more than seven million people in April 2007.

It spawned a sequel - Ashes to Ashes, set in the 1980s - starring Glenister, who has now signed up to appear in a second series.

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