Coming Next Year to British TV: Hitler With an ‘I Love Lucy’ Spin

A British satellite television station plans a comedy series on the home life of Adolf Hitler, his lover, Eva Braun, and their Jewish neighbors.

“As with many of the best comedy series . . . ‘Heil Honey, I’m Home’ deals with some sensitive topics,” said John Gau, director of programs at British Satellite Broadcasting, which plans to air the show next year.

The show will be based on the situation comedy format that proved so popular for such classics as “I Love Lucy.” Instead of being set in 1930s Berlin, Hitler lives in 1960s Hollywood.

The series will not develop against a backdrop of real historical events, though characters such as the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini may make a passing appearance.

A pilot episode drew some criticism, and changes were made.

“Some people felt that the portrayal of Hitler . . . was, for example, inadvertently too sympathetic,” Gau said. “In the series, he will clearly come off the loser in the domestic disputes.”

American writer Paul Wayne, who is Jewish, will write the series with Briton Geoff Atkinson.

“There have been a lot of problems doing this, but I really think we’ve found a way to make it work, being outrageous without being offensive,” Wayne said.