Father Ted is to be remade for American TV audiences.

The show already has a small, cult audience in the States thanks to a DVD release and airings on the cable channel BBC America.

Now Pariah TV - the company responsible for remaking The Kumars At Number 42 as The Ortegas - has snapped up the US rights from British producers Hat Trick.

"It's a terrific show," said Pariah boss Gavin Polone told Hollywood journal Variety. "I think this is the right time to do a show that touches on the humanity of priests.

"The press creates a distance between the church and regular people, but this makes the priests human."

Former Seinfeld and David Letterman writer Spike Feresten will adapt Father Ted for American audiences. He said: "I was raised Catholic, and this show just felt right to me."

And he launched a pre-emptive strike against conservative groups who might think TV comedies should not mock religion. "We won't go into areas that aren't funny for the show. I'm not out to tear down the church or proselytise," he said.

Any possible stars, or whether the setting for the show is to be moved from Craggy Island, has not yet been revealed.

No network has yet agreed to take the show, although Pariah has a close relationship with NBC.

Ironically, the plot of the last episode in the third and final series - filmed shortly before star Dermot Morgan died - revolved around Father Ted's dreams of going to Hollywood.