Michael Sheen and Channel 4 are embroiled in a row after being accused of ripping elements of their series Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway from a previous idea pitched to Sheen.

According to The Guardian, which broke the news, lawyers for producers Daniel Edelstyn and Hilary Powell have written to Sheen and the makers of his show raising the similarities it bears with their 2021 project Bank Job.

Channel 4 said it is “ludicrous to suggest that one show is a copy of the other,” while Sheen’s spokesperson told The Guardian the actor got the idea after watching John Oliver buying up medical bill debt in the U.S. nearly a decade ago.

Produced by Full Fat TV, Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway sees the Good Omens star use £100,000 ($130,000) of his own money to buy £1M of debt in his hometown of Port Talbot, which was then written off. The show aired several weeks back to strong reviews and an audience of more than one million viewers.

Edelstyn and Powell, who run Bank Job producer Optimistic Productions, used debt experts in their show to identify £1M worth of high-interest debt owed by people who lived in East London. This project launched independently in 2021 as a feature and was Grierson nominated.

According to The Guardian, Edelsteyn and Powell’s lawyers claim the pair were in contact with Sheen and had correspondence with him about Bank Job prior to Secret Million Pound Giveaway being commissioned. They say they pitched their show unsuccessfully to three Channel 4 commissioners. Channel 4 claim the commissioner of Secret Million Pound Giveaway had no awareness of Bank Job.

Sheen said the idea came from U.S.-based talk show host Oliver. “Michael has long campaigned about debt inequality, which is why Full Fat TV came to him with their ambitious proposal,” added his spokesperson. “They asked Michael to author a campaigning film to drive change in the debt and credit buying industry and to spend £100k of his own money to write off debt of people in his local community.”

A Channel 4 spokesman said: “These two programmes are significantly different and it’s ludicrous to suggest that one is a copy of the other. Buying and writing off debt is an established practice which has been covered in the media on multiple occasions and the commissioner who greenlit and worked on Michael Sheen’s Million Pound giveaway had no awareness of Bank Job.”

A Full Fat TV spokesperson told The Guardian the company “independently developed and pitched Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway to Channel 4.” “It is a shame that an important message about the unfairness of the credit system in this country, which Michael spent £100,000 of his own money to highlight, risks being lost due to these unfounded claims,” they added.

This isn’t the first time Channel 4 has been caught up in a plagiarism row. In 2021, formats creator Tim Shaw claimed Channel 4’s The Greatest Snowman show was similar to an idea he had pitched to the network two years prior.

Sheen, Full Fat and Optimistic Productions have been approached for further comment.