HBO vampire drama heads to FX UK

Fox-owned digital channel FX has strengthened its relationship with HBO by buying the UK rights to two more dramas from the US cable channel behind The Wire.

FX UK has secured the first two series of True Blood, adapted by Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball from the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

The genre-spanning show, which started in the US last month, stars Anna Paquin as a telepathic waitress who falls in love with a vampire, played by British actor Stephen Moyer.

The 12 x 60-minute "surf noir" drama John from Cincinnati, from NYPD Blue and Deadwood creator David Milch, follows a family whose banal existence is turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger. Despite a high-profile launch on HBO straight after The Sopranos' finale, the mystical drama lasted just one series in the US.

The deals follow FX UK's purchase of the UK rights to Generation Kill, the latest HBO project from The Wire's creators, David Simon and Ed Burns. The 7 x 60-minute series is a first-hand account of a group of US Marines' march into Iraq during the second Gulf War.

The channel will also show the pair's earlier 6 x 60-minute series The Corner, previously shown on E4.