There’s something pretty interesting happening with “Saturday Night Live” across the pond. And for those really not familiar with British slang, “pond,” in this context, is a reference to the Atlantic Ocean. OK, sure, that one is easy, but there are many, many turns of phrase and references that go over this reporter’s head as he watches “SNL UK” when it finally pops up on Sunday afternoons on Peacock.
Here’s an example: I know absolutely nothing about the population of the town of Southport or their use of heroin. But after Paddy Young’s “Weekend Update” delivery of, “So, if you’re in Southport and taking heroin … sorry, what do I mean if?,” followed by his oft-used devilish grin and an outburst of laughter by the live audience, does it matter?
OK, the “pond” thing does matter. You do need to know we are talking about the “Saturday Night Live” that is broadcast live from London and is currently through six episodes of its initial eight-episode first season. This is in stark contrast to the “Saturday Night Live” that is broadcast out of New York City, which will have its 1,007th show this coming weekend.
And, at least anecdotally here in the United States, the people I know who have been watching “SNL UK” really like “SNL UK.” Look, I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I watched the first episode prepared for the worst, but “the worst” never happened. “SNL UK” is good and it only keeps getting better. Which is remarkable when you consider the whole “only six episodes in” part of it.
Obviously the first season of “SNL,” back in 1975, changed television and has long been heralded. But, if you watch some of those first few episodes, they don’t much resemble the show that it would become later in the season. “SNL UK” has, at least so far, avoided catastrophic growing pains.
How? And how much is Lorne Michaels actually involved in the show? (Probably more than you think.) And just how much does the process of making “SNL UK” differ from that of its much-older US counterpart?
“On Saturday night, he was telling me about the episode that aired that day in England,” Morgan Neville, who directed the documentary about Lorne Michaels, titled “Lorne,” told me last month. (The Saturday night he’s referencing was during the Colman Domingo-hosted episode back on April 11.)
Michaels had some opinions. “They built this big set and he was telling me about the set,” said Neville. “He thinks they need to rebuild part of it to bring the audience a little closer to center stage.”
I passed this production note along to “SNL UK” producer James Longman as I was interviewing him for this piece, adding that I assumed he’s heard this already. “For sure,” said Longman. Then he laughed and added, “Could you imagine?”
Longman, a longtime producer for “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” told IndieWire he hears from Michaels regularly. Usually two calls a week, then regular texts throughout the week.
“He’s got his eye on a lot of things,” said Longman. “He’s said to me, ‘I wouldn’t have done it that way, but it worked for you.’” Now, it’s impossible not to hear that quote in Michaels’ famous, sometimes biting cadence made famous by Dana Carvey, then Dr. Evil, then literally every “SNL” cast member who has been on the show since.
To be clear, when Longman said that, he did come anywhere close to doing an impression of Lorne Michaels. But when I instinctively heard it that way, then laughed, Longman was quick to pick up on that and add, “But in a supportive way! He’s been nothing but brilliant, really. And how lucky I am to spend any time with him, let alone phone calls and texts.”
Watching “SNL UK,” it’s easy to spot the similarities to the U.S. version. There’s a famous host. There are live sketches. There are prerecorded sketches. There’s “Weekend Update” (more on that later). There’s also a full dress rehearsal and some sketches get cut before the live show. And there’s a musical guest that plays twice. But there are subtle differences.
For instance, on the Nicola Coughlan-hosted episode from April 25, Foo Fighters’ lead singer Dave Grohl appeared in a sketch about a doomed commercial airliner in which every man on board just assumed he could land the plane with no training or past experience, outside of the one man who had just watched “Top Gun: Maverick.” When the sketch ended, Grohl was led off his airplane set and whisked to the musical stage to perform the song “Child Actor” with the band. We saw all of this without a commercial break.
“Thank you for noticing the differences,” said Longman, who seemed genuinely appreciative. Over the last decade or two, how the “SNL” week actually works has become less and less of a mystery and more common knowledge to anyone who considers themselves fans of the show. (If you watch “Late Night with Seth Meyers” at all, this is something he discusses a lot.) That process has stayed in place over the last 51 seasons, including the five in the early 1980s in which Michaels wasn’t even there.
So we know there are subtle differences during the show, but what about the week leading up to the show?
On Mondays, the cast and writers of the U.S. show will huddle around in Michaels’ office to meet the host and pitch some initial ideas — which usually amount to nothing. To hear cast members talk of it, it’s mainly used as a session to make the host comfortable and get each other to laugh.
This is not the case in the UK version. Longman said on Mondays, “I go down into the writers’ room and the host comes in. I’m looking at the board now [this was a Wednesday] and some of the pitches from Monday are in this week’s show. So some of them do get used.”
What about the Tuesday night dinner that Lorne Michaels hosts, with the show host and some cast members? “We switch between Monday and Tuesday,” said Longman.
OK, but everyone knows about the infamous Tuesday night “SNL” writing night, where the cast and writers are up literally all night trying to come up with sketch ideas that can make it to Saturday’s live show. In the 1970s, this was fueled by cocaine. Today, it’s mostly fueled by caffeine and ambition. How does this all translate to the UK version?
Longman said, “Everyone is writing on Tuesday, but it’s all dependent. Some people like to burn the midnight oil, and beyond. I completely understand that process has worked extremely well for them. We don’t ask anyone to stay through the night, but some people choose to because that is their creative process. Every writer works differently. Some sit at a desk and type. Other like to go for a walk and think about things. Others like to work late. Others like to not work late. So I kind of lean into what their creative process is and hope they deliver — and I think, generally, they have.”
And the Wednesday table read, where it’s make or break for any sketch idea? Longman said, “I think the main difference is we may be slightly earlier for the table read. We kind of do it just after lunch. Lorne’s schedule is a little later than mine. … We tend to have 30 to 35 sketches, then we pick eight, including two films, to go through to the show. So we are similar, we might just be a little bit earlier.”
I then suggested this all does indeed sound similar, but less rigid, and asked if this is an accurate assessment. Longman said, “Yes, a little bit less rigid. And we are finding out feet so, what I’ve found actually, through the process of building this show — and we built it from scratch based on this footprint — but we had to build it our way.”
But Longman added an important caveat. “Often, Lorne will say, ‘This is why we do it that way,’ and we’ve been, ‘No, I don’t think we should do it that way.’ And then you realize it works the way they do it,” he said.
During the week, “SNL UK” is in touch with the U.S. show to make sure there’s no overlap. Actually, overlap is fine, but just to avoid egregious overlap, which hasn’t happened yet. The closest to this happening was on April 11, when the U.S. version featured Chloe Fineman’s Melania Trump informing her husband that she was going to give a random speech about Jeffrey Epstein. In the UK version, Emma Sidi’s Melania Trump almost supernaturally appears at a London cookout to play “Two Truths and a Lie,” which also referenced Epstein.
“We both had a Melania sketch and they both went down pretty well,” said Longman. “Ours showed up at a London garden, so it was a different angle and both casts on their side and our side did it brilliantly. But we spoke to them about it and they were into it and it all kind of worked out OK.”
Longman added, “I check cold opens, but there’s not too much crossover with them. But we’ve been quite Keir Starmer-heavy, obviously.”
Yes, if you are an American and you have been watching “SNL UK,” you’ve probably learned quite a bit about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, played by George Fouracres. The “SNL UK” interpretation has not been kind, portraying him as a bit of a weasel and someone deathly afraid to ever say no to Trump. This past week, Starmer commandeered the King and Queen’s return flight from the United States because he figures his role as Prime Minister can’t be taken away as long as he remains in the sky.
“The news isn’t quite as often as it is with Trump,” explained Longman, “because Trump is on the hour, every hour. Keir Starmer is a little bit more relaxed. George plays him brilliantly and we’re trying to find our way with it and work out what angle and those kind of things.”
Ania Magliano and Paddy Young are already very good at hosting “Weekend Update,” which is a hard job where success is not at all guaranteed. Now, for the American viewer, Colin Jost and Michael Che have been hosting “Weekend Update” since 2014. This is a remarkable run and has shattered every prior “Weekend Update” hosting record … by a lot. But it also creates such a familiarity, that watching Magliano and Young host “Update” is downright exciting.
There’s Maglinao dropping perfectly times eff bombs (yes, “SNL UK” is allowed to use expletives — and they sure do!), while Young forces viewers into submission by staring at us post punchline with a knowing smirk.
“If you separate them, in the comedy world, they are both very, very funny,” said Longman. “Together, they just very quickly created a chemistry. A kind of shorthand to funny that has been incredibly rewarding, really. And they are growing every week. I’m amazed by them, really.”
Over 2,000 people applied for cast member spots on “SNL UK,” resulting in a cast of 11 members — by design smaller than what American audiences have been used to. Its U.S. counterpart started the season with 17 cast members, before Bowen Yang left halfway through the season. Longman explained of his smaller cast, “If it’s too big of a cast for a show like ours, the audience needs to get to know them. With more cast members they won’t ever get screen time and we need their personalities to come out.”
Obviously, this entire piece is written from the American viewpoint on “SNL,” by someone who has watched “SNL” his entire life and has seen “SNL” live nine times. I do wonder if the format of “SNL UK,” just by osmosis, endears itself better to an American audience? Or if Longman is even considering his potential American audience?
“What I always come back to is we’re tying to make a funny show,” he said. “But it just happens we have a very British perspective on a lot of things. The fact that you and your friends watch it? I’m over the moon about that, because it means there is some translation.”
Has he even paid attention to the British reviews of the show? Yes, he has. “It’s the classic British angle, essentially, we thought it was going to be shit and it’s actually alright,” he said. He considers that a compliment.
And, most importantly, will “SNL UK” be back for another season? Longman either does not know or isn’t saying. He told us, “Definitely not for sure. But I stay away from these discussions, I’m just trying to make a funny show.”
“SNL UK” airs Saturday nights at 10 p.m. BST in England on Sky One and NOW. The show streams the following day in the U.S. on Peacock.
