STARSKY AND HUTCH are to be reborn as a pair of French cops called Madani and Duval in a Gallic version of the 1970s hit series.

The show is being produced by the trendy M6 channel, which hopes to tap into the French love of American television while respecting its legal obligation to make 40 per cent of its programmes in France.

Work on a pilot episode will begin next week with Alexandre Brasseur, the French television actor, taking the part of Starsky, or Madani, as he will be known, the role originally played by Paul Michael Glaser. David Soul’s Hutch has been renamed Duval and will be played by Laurent Hennequin.

Half of the initial 22 episodes will be based on scripts from the original series, which was a success in France when it was broadcast on TF1 between 1978 and 1984.

However, Duval and Madani will be more nouvel homme than their American counterparts, who are considered too macho for a contemporary French audience.

The part of Captain Harold Dobey, Starsky and Hutch’s gruff boss, will be played by a woman, according to M6. Olivier Jamain, the director, is also looking for the right person for the role of Huggy Bear, whose name will be changed to César.

M Jamain has not yet chosen the car that will replace the red Ford Torino that featured in the 1970s series.

With the French manufacturers largely absent from the high-performance vehicle market, the actors may have to settle for a Citroen 2CV, though Madani, otherwise known as Starsky, could have some trouble landing on its considerably smaller bonnet.

In real life, French police officers tend to drive family saloons, such as the Renault Scénic and complain that they have difficulty catching crooks in fast German limousines.

M Jamain has already lined up Rémy Julienne, a famous French stuntman, to oversee the spectacular car chases that M6 says will be an integral part of the series.

“We are always looking for lasting heroes,” a spokesman for the channel said.

“There are no greater heroes than Starsky and Hutch. We are making our own version because everyone has seen the original.

“It is also important that we meet our quota for French-made programmes, and this will obviously be included.”

French television is under fire for what critics say is a failure to maintain highbrow cultural traditions. But despite a continued belief in French cultural superiority in some quarters, viewers remain deeply attached to American shows: Dallas, Dynasty, Love Boat, Columbo and Charlie’s Angels are regularly repeated, while French series from the 1970s and 1980s have disappeared.

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