BBC Studios and Canal+ Poland have announced a new scripted format agreement that will see the BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning and iconic comedy series The Office remade for the Polish audience. Production began on 4th July 2021.

A fly-on-the-wall style mocumentary, the original version of The Office was written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and first aired in the UK 20 years ago this month. The agreement with Canal+ Poland will mark the 11th international sale of the format, alongside the US, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Finland, and India.

In the Polish adaptation, The Office is in a bottled water company – Kropliczanka – based in Siedlce, a town near Warsaw. David Brent becomes Michał, played by Piotr Polak, a self-absorbed man who craves attention and flattery. When the company is acquired by a a new owner and employees start to worry about their jobs – Michał is the only optimistic one.

The local series will also see the inclusion of a new leading female character, Patrycja, played by Vanessa Aleksander. Patrycja wants to bring change and newness to Kropliczanka and becomes a formidable opponent to Michał. The fight that commences impacts on the entire office team.
The 12-part series is set to air on Canal+ and online at canalplus.com in Poland this Autumn. The series will be directed by Maciej Bochniak and produced by Dorota Kośmicka Gacke and Jan Kępiński.

André Renaud, SVP Format Sales for BBC Studios, said: “It will be 20 years this month since Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office launched on the BBC in the UK and it’s incredible that Poland will join countries like the USA, to Finland, and Chile, and most recently in India, to bring the stories of this great group of colleagues and their charmingly hapless boss to life in this milestone 11th version. I’m looking forward to seeing how the team will reimagine office life for the 21st century Polish viewer. After the past year, I’m sure we are all craving a bit of office life and I’m hopeful that there will be more local “offices” opening up in the near future.”

“At Canal+ Poland we are all The Office fans! We decided to pursue the local version, because we aim for innovative, surprising and bold content, also in comedy genre. The original had it all: universal topics that translate well to any setting worldwide; and in pandemic times we miss the mundane, office life and look at its quirks with certain nostalgia,” added Małgorzata Seck, VP of Programming for Canal+ Poland.