Greece’s Open TV launches remake of Turkish romantic drama My Sweet Lie

The original Turkish version of My Sweet Lie

MIPTV: Greek free-to-air channel Open TV has launched a remake of the Turkish romantic comedy drama My Sweet Lie.

The Greek adaptation, titled Like a Lie, debuted on Open TV on Monday to strong ratings in its early-evening primetime slot.

The show stars Nikos Polyderopoulos (The Tattoo) and Katerina Geronikolou (And Yet I’m Still Here) and follows a single father who, after being abandoned by his wife, maintains a lie to his daughter that her mother is away travelling, but will one day return.

The adaptation comes after Stockholm-headquartered distributor Eccho Rights licensed the script rights to Open TV.

The original version of the show, produced by O3 Medya for Star TV, debuted in 2019 and was Turkey’s top-performing drama series in the summer of that year, according to Eccho Rights, which is shopping the show at MipTV in Cannes this week.

The scripted format has also been adapted by Slovakian network Markiza. The local version, titled Mom for Rent, is currently airing its second season.

“This is a unique and brilliant format, with a warm family story at its heart that lends itself perfectly to local adaptation,” said Eccho Rights director of Turkish drama Handan Özkubat.

“The original was a huge phenomenon and the Slovakian version has been a returning favourite for the past 18 months, so we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this latest version from our friends in Greece.”