{"id":1940433,"date":"2026-05-17T10:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T07:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1940433"},"modified":"2026-05-17T10:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T07:29:49","slug":"snl-saturday-night-live-uk-met-a-sceptical-crowd-but-has-it-won-them-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1940433","title":{"rendered":"SNL: Saturday Night Live UK met a sceptical crowd – but has it won them over?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6c00\/live\/35ad1900-5048-11f1-a712-bdb9a88fa140.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"SkySky UK<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
One critic said that George Fouracres’ impression of Keir Starmer “is everything I needed it to be”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Ahead of the first episode of Saturday Night Live UK, we asked whether the show could make us laugh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Many were sceptical about whether the 50-year-old US sketch-comedy variety show would translate for a British audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As its eight-week run comes to a close, with guest-hosting duties performed by the likes of Hannah Waddingham, Jamie Dornan and Aimee Lou Wood, the consensus from fans and critics is, yes, it has made us laugh – but there are caveats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The final episode of the series, hosted by Sex Education and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, was one of the strongest when it came to the quality of the sketches, showing just how far the show has come in its eight weeks on air.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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British icons were a running theme, with guest appearances from Louis Theroux, Martin Lewis and even Mr Blobby, reinforcing the message that the Saturday night show had not been created to simply mirror its US counterpart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was also perhaps the strongest week for the topical sketches, with the political spoof cold opening featuring convincing turns from the cast as Sir Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner and Liz Truss. The news section, Weekend Update, was also particularly memorable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SkySky UK<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The SNL UK cast: Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The cast of the Sky show appear to have gelled well over its run. Each member has been given licence to express their own personal brand of humour, whether that’s parody, musical or absurdist comedy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“My favourite moments of the first season of SNL UK have been when it’s been allowed to be really unhinged,” says TV critic Natalie Jamieson, who references a Traitors spoof featuring a man dressed as a giant crab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She says each of the show’s 11 “fascinating and joyful” comedians (until now, relatively small names) “bring something different to the table”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The group are Annabel Marlow, Ayoade Bamgboye, Hammed Animashaun, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Where the show has shone brightest has been on social media, with analysis by Deadline showing that SNL UK content received 86m views across its official accounts in its first month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jamieson says the virality is “comparable” to its US counterpart, adding that the show is “filling a void” of live British comedy at weekends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sky’s unscripted boss Phil Edgar Jones says the network is “thrilled” with its reception. Last week he announced it would be renewed for a second series, with 12 episodes to be broadcast between autumn 2026 and early 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Executive producer Lorne Michaels, who also created the original show in 1975, says he is “incredibly proud” of how the UK version has turned out, noting “it keeps getting better every week”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Standout star <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For critic Jamieson, highlights include Jamie Dornan’s rugby sketch, in which he goes to elaborate lengths to injure himself, and Traitors spoof The Great Big Crab Man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Others have also picked up on the talent of the show’s writers, who include 8 Out of 10 Cats writer Charlie Skelton, The Late Late Show with James Corden writer Louis Waymouth, and Have I Got News For You’s Bella Hull.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Fan Olivia Goldsbury, 19, has watched SNL US for five years but says she prefers the British version.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“You can tell the cast and writers are so experienced in comedy,” Olivia says, highlighting the influence of Jamie Demetriou – who is a consultant on SNL UK and the creator of Stath Lets Flats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She says her standout star has been George Fouracres, whose “Keir Starmer impression is everything I needed it to be”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 35-year-old comedian, who is mostly known for his work at Shakespeare’s Globe, does “perfect impressions and accents”, according to Olivia, who says his “What kind of Irish is your granddad?” sketch was “stuck in my head for weeks”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cal Clayton, 20, another fan of the show, praises the production team for choosing beloved “British and Irish talent” to host.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“People thought they were just going to go for panel-show comedians,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jamieson says the nature of sketch comedy means most people won’t find every element funny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She says it would be “disingenuous” to say the entire series had been “incredibly amusing” but she didn’t expect perfection “from week one”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cal agrees, saying the sketches have been in “hit-or-miss territory” – but “we’re in year 51 of the US version and it’s still like that”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He thinks the pre-taped sketches have been funnier than the live ones for the most part but says Weekend Update has been consistently strong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jamieson agrees, noting that the two hosts of the news segment “work really well” together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She hopes that, in series two, the cast will “take more risks”, saying the show was in its element when bringing totally “unexpected” themes to the table, alongside more topical sketches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She refers to a “ridiculous” sketch from week two set in an Industrial Revolution-era factory, in which the cast were tasked with gluing the ends of fast food restaurant wraps together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Like its US counterpart, the UK show has a cold open – beginning immediately with a sketch before going to a title sequence, opening credits and then an opening monologue from the guest host.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Olivia and Jamieson both feel the guest-host monologues didn’t work for the British version of the show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jamieson says there isn’t the same history of comedy monologues in British TV and adds they’re more commonplace in America due to a culture of late-night TV chat shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Olivia makes an exception for guest host Nicola Coughlan – who walked through the set in a homage to the US SNL.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Huge potential for new hosts<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Viewing figures have not been mind-blowing – Tina Fey’s opening show attracted 226,000 live viewers on Sky One, which was more than Channel 4 received at the same time, but falls behind BBC One or Two, or ITV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Each show’s viewing figures have at least doubled a week later with the inclusion of repeats and on-demand viewers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlike in the US, not all SNL UK sketches have been uploaded to social media, so a subscription to Sky TV or its streaming service Now is needed for the full experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Olivia says her friends go to their parents’ houses to watch the show on Sky or just catch the limited clips on Instagram or YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Even cast member Emma Sidi is “shocked that [people] are in on a Saturday night watching it”, telling BBC Newsbeat: “I think there are quite a lot of people putting it into their diary.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Twelve new episodes means huge potential for new hosts – with Jamieson hoping for more exciting names come autumn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Her dream hosts include actors Jodie Comer and Leo Woodall, while Olivia is hoping for Bob Mortimer. Cal wants to see Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens take to the SNL UK stage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cj0p7q080yno”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6c00\/live\/35ad1900-5048-11f1-a712-bdb9a88fa140.jpg”] Sky UK One critic said that George Fouracres’ impression of Keir Starmer “is everything I needed it to be” Ahead of the first episode of Saturday Night Live UK, we asked whether the show could make us laugh. Many were sceptical about whether the 50-year-old US sketch-comedy variety show would translate for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1940433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1940433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1940433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1940433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1940433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}