Let’s be honest – no one was really expecting Saturday Night Live UK to be a hit. As Nicola Coughlan so gently put it when she guest cameoed in Tina Fey’s opening monologue, “British people tend to root for the failure of others.”
It certainly felt like a flop at the preshow, which featured comedian Sara Hadland, better known as best friend to British comedy legend Miranda. Sadly, many of the first scenes felt sloppy and fell flat, with one particular sketch about the construction of Stone Henge finishing with laser shooting aliens. Bizarre – to say the least.
From the offset, logistics were clearly an issue. Audience members would be forgiven for thinking they were an inconvenience to production staff before the pre show, as we had been left in a small and crowded room for over an hour with nowhere to sit and no refreshments. Not a particularly welcoming environment, which certainly had a part to play in the crowd’s initial lethargy when we did eventually take our seats.
The musical entertainment, a truly fantastic singer, obviously felt the tension in the room and tried to encourage everyone to “get zen”, which included breathing exercises and smooth jazz songs. But it turns out, you don’t want a turned off audience for a comedy show, and many of the initial sketches were met with a muted reaction.
But the actual show, featuring comedy superstar and previous Head Writer at SNL, Tina Fey, was a force to be reckoned with. SNL cast members and Weekend Update hosts Ania Magliano and Paddy Young came out to introduce themselves and prepare the audience for a night of salacious comedy and good old-fashioned British ribbing.
In a time of division and upheaval, Weekend Update’s criticisms of Donald Trump, Keir Starmer, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and the war in Iran, allowed the audience an avenue to vent their frustrations, which drew allusions to the much loved political commentary show Spitting Image.
The opening sketch featuring George Fouracres doing an impression of Kier Starmer was tonally spot-on and featured, with incredible accuracy, the Prime Minister’s strange relationship with Trump, and the US’s recent erratic foreign policy decisions. One watcher commented: “I have to say that his Starmer Darklek tone was incredibly accurate.”
But overall, most of X was in agreement that Jack Shep was the star of the show. Shep’s Princess Diana impression made the entire crowd laugh so loud that it inspired a string of conspiracy theories on social media that it was actually canned laughter. From there, things improved substantially. By the end, the audience left buzzing with the possibility that we were at the precipice of history, and the feeling that this was truly a moment to be cherished.
The cast is stellar, the writers have their finger on the pulse of the political world, and the entire set is awesome, thanks to their £2m an episode budget. While British people do love to root for the failure of others, the first Saturday Night Live UK episode was an undeniable success.
