Do you know that the first piece of television drama ever produced in Britain was screened by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1930?
The drama was an adaptation of the play The Man with the Flower in His Mouth by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello.
Due to the primitive camera technology, only one figure could be shown on screen at a time.
In the end, it had only three characters who were filmed in a confined setting.
Since then, BBC dramas have progressed tremendously, producing series from science fiction to costume dramas.
Today, we can even find many remakes of BBC dramas including from South Korea.
Furthermore, the remakes of these series have been received well by the South Korean audience.
Here are five South Korean series that are remakes of BBC dramas to watch:
1.Less than Evil (2018)
If you loved Idris Elba in BBC drama Luther, this is the Korean remake of it.
Less than Evil (2018) is a crime-thriller drama centers around Woo Tae-suk (Shin Ha-kyun), a character based on Elba’s character John Luther.
Woo is a tough, justice-driven detective with the highest arrest rate.
In his pursue for justice, Woo comes across a psychopath named Eun Sun-jae (Lee Seol).
She is the Korean counterpart of Luther’s Alice Morgan played by British actress Ruth Wilson.
2.Mistress (2018)
Mistresses is a British drama that follows the lives of four friends and their illicit and complex relationships.
The drama has three remakes namely from South Korea, Japan and the United States.
The Korean remake of the series is entitled Mistress (2018).
It stars Han Ga-in, Shin Hyun-bin, Choi Hee-seo and Goo Jae-yee.
Han plays the role of Jang Se-yeon, a cafe shop owner and widow who lives alone with her daughter. Her husband died two years earlier but his body was never found.
Meanwhile, Kim Eun-soo (Shin Hyun-bin) is a psychiatrist who holds a secret. One day, his patient reveals that he wanted to kill his dead father’s mistress. Little that he knows, Eun-soo is the mistress.
The third member of the group of friends is Han Jung-won (Choi Hee-seo). She is a high school teacher who is stressed over her pregnancy issues.
Lastly, Da Hwa-young (Goo Jae-yee) is the carefree one of the group. She determines to live her live without a man while working as a secretary.
In the drama, everyone has a secret to hide or a past that keeps on haunting them.
3.Life on Mars (2018)
When a science fiction story combined with a police procedural plot, here we have Life on Mars.
The original BBC drama features police officer Sam Tyler from the Greater Manchester Police (played by John Simm).
After being hit by a car in 2006, Tyler miraculously wakes up in 1973.
Meanwhile, the Korean remake features Han Tae-joo (Jung Kyung-ho). He is a modern-day forensics scientist who travels to 1988 after running into an accident.
He believes that he must solve a series of murder cases in order to go back to the present day.
4.World of the Married (2020)
This blood-boiling, popular K-drama about adultery was originally based on BBC One’s series Doctor Foster written by Mike Bartlett.
It follows the story of Ji Sun-woo (Kim Hee-ae), a doctor who is married to an aspiring director Lee Tae-oh (Park Hae-joon).
Together with their son, Sun-woo believes that her family is prefect.
Her world collapses when she finds out that Tae-oh is having an affair with a younger woman.
Today, the series is the highest-rated drama in Korean cable television history.
5.One Ordinary Day (2021)
Here is an upcoming Korean drama based on BBC series Criminal Justice that is scheduled to air in November 2021.
It follows the story of Kim Hyun-soo (Kim Soo-hyun) whose life turns upside down when he becomes a murder suspect.
And the only one who reaches out to help him is Shin Joong-had (Cha Seung-won).
He is a lawyer who barely passed the bar exam.
In the original BBC version, the story follows Ben Coulter (Ben Whishaw). He is a young man who is accused of murder after a drunken and drug-filled night out.
