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The Hollywood Reporter was gifted one of London’s hottest tickets on Saturday night: a seat at the season two finale of SNL UK.
At the city’s Television Centre, it is a behemoth operation. Hundreds of people eat, sleep, and breathe this show for the entirety of its two-month run. Entering the building is not unlike being back at university — the food hall is bustling, people nervously hug one another, and the sound of a live band rehearsing floats through the walls. Unlike university, security here is almost uncomfortably overbearing. A jittery energy — and distinct buzz — percolates. It’s 9 p.m. The countdown to showtime is on, and this team still has something to prove.
The Sky spinoff of Lorne Michaels’ long-running NBC sketch show boasted solid viewership numbers in its first installment earlier this year, led by SNL hall-of-famer Tina Fey. Her inaugural episode notched up over 220,000 viewers in Britain, and despite the sharp drop toward the end of the season — Ncuti Gatwa’s closer, up against the Eurovision Song Contest, ended on a series low of 86,420 — critic response was generally fairly warm.
Season two was ushered in by another Hollywood star. Jeff Goldblum, with musical guest CMAT by his side, attracted an overnight audience of 105,000 on Sep. 9. From there, the series again leaned into some of the more niche British names, with Jamie Demetriou, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Danny Dyer and James Norton taking on hosting duties in the next four episodes. Demetriou and Dimoldenberg, as well as Gatwa, Ike Barinholtz and Lizzy Caplan, are among the high-profile names spotted in the audience at the finale, where Wicked star Cynthia Erivo takes to the stage. (A member of the hair and makeup team names Erivo a standout host on our way to set. She’s proven popular with the cast and crew.)
The cast remains a group of some of the U.K.’s brightest comedy talents: Hammed Animashaun, Al Nash, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Annabel Marlow, Jack Shep, and Emma Sidi all returned for season two. Weekend Update presenters Ania Magliano and Paddy Young saw particular breakout success, and both of them scored sold-out runs for their solo comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. It’s just the one newcomer this season — Such Brave Girls star Freddie Meredith, who appears in Saturday’s episode as Prince William on The Graham Norton Show. (“Is it true that your brother Harry has reached out this week?” says a bearded Shep, wielding an Irish accent. “Shut up!” replies Meredith, prompting laughter with William’s signature, teeth-bearing grin.)
With two seasons officially under its belt, SNL UK naysayers continue to ask: Can this very American format make Brits laugh? The answer is yes. This cast, steadfast in its commitment to appealing to a very British sensibility, sticks to jokes that probably have Barinholtz and Caplan a little stumped. Think Noel Fielding’s odd posture on The Great British Bake Off, a Walthamstow wedding crashed by a rapper who can’t bury her beef with Thames Water, and a princess trapped in a tower throwing a can of Lilt at her rescuer: The target audience here is deliberately specific.
The live recording seats an audience of 275. The cast and writers bring 30-40 sketches to the read-through at the beginning of each week. This is cut down to just six or seven by Saturday’s 6 p.m. dress rehearsal, a mere four hours before they go live. At the dress, THR is told, as many creases as possible are ironed out — if a cue card needs to be positioned just a centimetre further to the left, it’s caught here.
SNL UK feels more like a party than a TV set. There are the bright lights, the cameras, the glaring “APPLAUSE” sign lofted above us attendees in the bleachers, but cast members are keen to warm up the crowd. They’re comedians, after all. That particular task includes an impromptu duet from Animashaun and Nash, who get up on stage — designed to resemble a smoky, basement comedy club in Soho — and serenade this very game audience. We’re encouraged to cheer, dance and soak up the thrill of watching live TV in action.
After a cold open in which Fouracres’ Andy Burnham sits for his Celebrity Gogglebox appearance and Dring’s Claudia Winkleman takes a dig at the dullness of this season’s Celebrity Traitors, Erivo begins her opening monologue by poking fun at herself. She is not as serious as audiences have assumed from the famously intense Wicked press tour, Erivo tells us. This statement is accompanied by a slideshow of her deadpan face photoshopped onto a skydiver. “I love the feeling of the wind through my… nails,” she says. The nails become a topic of discussion, in fact: “To me, they’re normal. I’ve had them since I was 16,” she adds. “They’re an extension of my body, an expression of my soul, and surprisingly practical. I haven’t had to use cutlery in years.”
The aforementioned Bake Off pops up again in Erivo’s monologue. “It would be chaos,” she continues about appearing on the show with those razor-sharp nails. “Making cake batter with one nail, chopping my butter with the other. Noel’s telling me I’ve got 30 seconds left, and Alison [Hammond] just keeps laughing. It’s not funny, Hammond. Seriously, what are you laughing at? I’ve got a soggy bottom, and I’m freaking stressed!”
And so ensues a string of sketches that showcase Erivo’s comedic talents. She plays a secret hitwoman who attempts to clear out an awkward B&B breakfast room by feigning a passion for birds — and bird noises. In another, titled “Modern Music,” she and Marlow riff on, erm, how female rappers talk about their own bodies: “It’s gorgeous, stunning, clever and it’s somehow always clean,” sings Erivo. “It sings just like an angel, it shines just like the sun, it doesn’t really take much if you want to make me… dance.” Marlow isn’t so confident about her own body. “It’s not that mine’s bad, I just don’t know what a good one is!” she raps.
But the show-stealer was undoubtedly the Nollywood, sapphic take on Erivo’s breakout role. In “Nigerian Wicked,” she plays Glinda to Bamgboye’s Elphaba. Shoddy visual effects and melodramatic narration (“Glinda doesn’t like egg, so their relationship is very strained”) had the audience in fits of laughter. They look as though they might just kiss, but soon journey on the Yellow Brick Road to find the Wizard of LagOz (Animashaun). Glinda promises Elphaba he’ll give her the “gravity-defying” BBL of her dreams, but when they finally meet the Wizard, they find he’s broke. “That’s a nolex!” says a disgusted Erivo. The credits roll, and the actress uses her full name: Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Owezuke Amarachukwu Echimino Erivo.
The SNL UK social team is clearly well aware of where much of the show’s audience lives in the content economy — “Nigerian Wicked”s YouTube clip has already hit one million views in less than 24 hours.
Magliano and Young’s Weekend Update featured more of the brutal, satirical one-liners that have made the sequence a far-and-away fan favorite. “It’s been a big 24 hours for Meghan Markle,” Young begins, “whose dad has been accused of being an alleged pedophile in another pathetic attempt to win over the British public.” Other highlights include Young’s try-out for James Bond and an appearance from Shep’s heavily accented, moustached character Scrimpch.
Throughout the show, those of us in the bleachers are given a near-perfect view of the size of the operation. Around five or six different sets surround the entire crew, who swivel and reposition between four-minute ad breaks (which are punctuated by some brilliant live jazz music to keep the crowd alive). Musical guest Blossoms are given two slots across the show and are seemingly completely relaxed on stage. The cast members, if not running to de-wig and get into their next costume, can be seen dancing, waving and greeting others buried in that centre-stage circus. When the finale finishes, Erivo is giddy. The cameras cut, and she continues hugging every single cast member, whom she’s evidently formed a real bond with this week. The afterparty beckons.
SNL UK season three is slated for release in January. Maybe it’s just the room’s infectious energy talking, but with a show this slick and a cast so obviously at home here, this series might just have finally found its groove.
English (US) ·