In the cold open of Saturday Night Live U.K.’s March 21 premiere, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, played by cast member George Fouracres, tries to work up the courage to call Donald Trump to tell him that the U.K. can’t support his war in Iran. “What if Donald shouts at me?” he asks Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy (Hammed Animashaun) in exaggerated cowardice. It’s ostensibly a sketch about British politics featuring British politicians, written to be enjoyed by a British audience. But the sketch’s premise is conceived in response to the U.S., and it sets the tone for the rest of the episode.
The entire hour, from the aesthetic of the opening credits to the structure of its “Weekend Update” segment, exists in the context of its American counterpart, and the result is a surreal viewing experience — less SNL U.K. as a stand-alone product than a British production doing SNL cosplay. The adaptation was always going to invite comparisons to the original, of course, and the producers’ instincts to try to replicate its format and sensibilities wholesale to reverse engineer its success are understandable. But in courting comparisons so directly, it prompts questions about what market this version of the show is serving. How many SNL completists or blind British loyalists are there who would watch this over, or in addition to, the original?
