SNL UK: Jamie Dornan/Wolf Alice (04.28.2026)

Prince Andrew Meets With MI5

• Hey, they didn't open the show with sudden, screaming out-of-nowhere applause this week! Instead decided to...hold off on that until after the historical opening voice over...that doesn't have an opening text crawl. That's still an improvement. Now, if only they could do something about those pesky group shootings of "Live From London" and do a solo one just once...

• Speaking of, was that Fouracres doing the opening voiceover? Sounded like it could've been him. Plus, it's nice of this show to give us some variety with its cold opens and not give us George as Kier Starmer for two weeks in a row.

• Still, this "secret plan meeting" format does feel like something modern SNL has done both in the recent past and distant past (see the two Charlie's Angels parodies they did in 1979 and 1987) but with a "royal scandal" twist this time. I think they pulled off executed this quite well (moreso than SNL US did whenever they tried something like this in recent years).

• OK, I get them wanting to push Jack Shep as...well, maybe not the "star" or "face" of SNL UK and I understand his Princess Diana impression got the show a lot of positive buzz online recently but...that was a rather odd way to work in him holding a picture of his Diana impression just to remind us that he was the one who did it.

• Celestes' Cunk-like deadpan on all of her lines was the icing on the cake for me. I particularly liked her jab at Prince William. I also liked Ayoades reply of "turn to page 72, it will" to Jack's Andrew saying this news would "kill mummy" if it came out.

• I wasn't clued all the way into what was going on with Larrys' Peter Mandleson (had to do a bit of Googling to remind myself of exactly which part of the Epstein scandal was being referenced there) but hey, that just speaks to this show further establishing its own unique British comic identity.

• Emma Sidis' Fergie may have been the comedic high point of this for me. She may be the hidden gem of this show. From what I've seen so far she's shown quite a bit of range and an ability to sink into different characters well. B-

Monologue 

• Hmm...Jamie's pretty stiff in delivering this monologue (although I did get a kick out of the "following broadcast guidelines" joke).

• He seems pretty nervous...and I'm betting this is real because it seems too odd to be made up.

• He should have enough charm to put over the "lol ain't I secretly quirky?" vibes of this monologue but he looks like he's having way too late second thoughts about revealing this part of himself on a new English comedy show that critics are struggling to hate as much as they wanted to.

• I guess I missed the broadcast glitch that took place here. It would've probably been the most interesting part of this monologue, sadly.

• Part of me wishes I could've seen this "live" live so I could've actually Googled "Jamie Dornan Potato Rocks" BEFORE the actual results would've been SEO'd into just being various fluff write-ups of this very monologue.

• Hey, Chris O'Dowd! Smart of them to get an actual proven funny person to make a cameo in this monologue! Unfortunately, he couldn't save this.

• This reminds me a little of another SNL US monologue. Specifically, Elliott Goulds' 1980 monologue from the ill fated season six premiere where he shows off his collection of women's panties. They both have the same "is this the best thing for a host to be doing for an audience with an unestablished brand new SNL cast as the only ones supporting him?" vibes.

• Yeah, this monologue didn't quite fill me with confidence that the rest of the show would be great. C-

British Themed Pub

• OK, now this is DEFINITELY an old SNL format (and more proof that they're pushing Jack Shep as the show's Pete/Marcello/Bowen type main draw for young people with a rap video that sounds like it's designed for online virality)

• Al and Jack definitely had the best verses in this but I liked Hammeds' too. God, even lyrically this is much better than the type of modern rap videos SNL would do.

• It's nice to know that traveling to vastly diverse foreign lands just to spend most of your time reveling in their simulations of you own culture isn't ENTIRELY an American (maybe it's just a white thing or an English speaking thing or a colonizer thing?)

• I liked Emma suddenly bringing some sad self awareness to this. Even though the twist of Jamie suddenly showing up just to take them to an Irish themed pub felt pretty telegraphed, I liked how they pulled it off because even Mr. Grey was spitting bars here and seemed much more in his element than he did in his monologue. B-

Hostage Situationship

• Smart of them to put this after the monologue with the pub song as a buffer. Jamie actually did work here because he was much more dialed in. He's definitely more in his comfort zone parodying a Taken-style kidnapping scene in an action/thriller type film. Plus, he switched from "intense and menacing villain" to "light and girly bestie" back and forth with ease.

• Nice to see this episode showcase the female cast more by giving Annabel her own lead off sketch. She also seems to have the ability to slip in and out if different types of characters given how different this performance was from what she did in the pub song.

• A kidnapping victim getting bogged down in her relationship status with her guy friend does seem like something I could see both modern SNL US and BVSS doing. Thankfully, the way they executed this was closer to the latter than the former.

• Jacks' video response was pretty "meh" but it did serve as a nice transition into the real ending with Annabel having taken Jamie's gun and running off with it (but leaving him with her phone for some reason?) once he threatens to kill her. B-

Night Time Incident

• It was a little hard for me to get keyed into this but it made more sense on rewatch. I do know Jools Holland as a talk show host/music presenter/interviewer in British TV but I didn't know he also regularly hosts New Year's Eve specials in England (or that their Daylight Savings Time is about three weeks after ours...or how/why he would just steal peoples hours from clocks not pushed forward but I guess that's just the absurdity of it all).

• Still, I enjoyed the impressions of Mr. Holland from George, Paddy and Al (because "they don't call (him) 'Jool' Holland). Emma's Jessie J was a fun impression, too but odd to see in 2026 as I thought she had to give up live performing for much of the same reasons Huey Lewis did.

• Ironically, I usually remember to set the clocks on my stove and microwave each daylight savings time because they're two of the only three devices with clocks in my house that don't set themselves back ir forward automatically due to them not being connected to the internet in any way (and since when has any DVD player had a clock that tells the time?)

• Usually, ending buttons on these types of sketches are pretty dammed annoying but this worked because it was just a government PSA and it didn't turn out to be for some wildly unrelated bullshit.

• Anyway, it's good to see SNL UK is already getting a handle on SNL US' old "making a horror movie/psychological thriller trailer out of some banal real life situation" trope and easily figuring out how to do that better, too! B+

The Battle Within 

• Oh, look. It's SNL UKs first ever "host is hot" sketch. I was wondering if they'd even bother with THAT particular well worn SNL US trope this week.

• Well, at least it's nice to see them give Celeste her first showcase sketch in a non-supporting role, but sadly there wasn't anything remarkable about this sketch (aside from how they transitioned it into the first Wolf Alice performance...who were a much more interstellar choice of musical guest than Wet Leg, by the way).

• This reminds me of another specific SNL US sketch from 1998 where Molly Shannon played a children's clown visiting a sick girl played by Alec Baldwin...as himself because his character "Cassidy" had a condition that makes a six year old girl resemble a handsome middle aged man and she can only sleep on satin sheets with satin pajamas. You'd have to see it to make sense of it. Unfortunately, there's no video of it online and my description of it doesn't quite do it any justice.

• Anyway, that was kind of a boring sketch with a premise that they couldn't go anywhere with. D+

Weekend Update w/Paddy & Ania

• Paddys' Best Jokes: Nazi Scandal, Fergie, OnlyFans, Clavicular Arrest, Chelsea, BTS

• Anias' Best Jokes: Houthi Missle, Energy Bills, Tube Manners,

• I really liked the "hand in hand" segment. Both Paddy and Ania delivered great dark jokes in a unique straight to camera segment. I especially liked Ania and her hand sanitizer at the end. Hell, it even reminded me if something Jost & Che did in their first US Weekend Update from 2014 back when they seemed fresh.

• Jesus, you can even say "cumming so hard you drop your poppers" on British TV after 9pm GMT?

• I do like that they're making Paddys' BTS analysis/obsession a recurring theme

• Hey, nice to see Ayoade get her own big showcase after being pretty much left on the sidelines last week.

• She was fine here, but her segment seemed like it was weirdly cut down or something because it seemed a little rushed and didn't have a conclusion.

• Ayoade roasting Paddy was still pretty funny though. At this point, I'd rather see one of Paddys' cast mates roast him for being an scruffy, schlubby loser then see one of Colin Josts castmates roast him for...being an imagined creep behind the scenes or just being a low key dork who somehow married and had a kid with an actress who's way out of his league. Still, the back and forth between her and Ania should've been rewritten to make more sense. B-

Gluing Wraps

• Huh, a minor fast food related annoyance gets blown up into an Oliver Twist-like musical number set in a Dickensian work house. As challenging as this was to parse at times, this turned out to be a lot of fun! I found it quite reminiscent of the types of mini-epic sketches with big musical numbers that the show Fridays would regularly open with during their early 80s run.

• Annabel was great as the dynamic lead here. I'm impressed with the sheer variety of different roles she's handled with ease. Jamie played the villain well. Emma and George were great here, too. George pulled off his Pythonesque pepperpot drag role quite seamlessly here.

• Sadly, we may not have gotten another "45 Seconds With Fouracres" this week but as long as they're giving him enough parts in other sketches that his total airtime spread across the entire show totals up to at least 45 seconds (if not more), I'd be fine with that. A-

Beanz Bros

• I loved all the deranged and twisted details crammed into this sketch about this familys' checkered past. 

• I also liked how it also functioned as a showcase for Larry (who had the funniest line in this sketch). I liked that we're finally starting to get a bead on what his comedic style is.

• This was definitely my favorite pretape of this episode. A+

Rugby Player

• WHOA HOLY SHIT!!! 

• Just when I think this episode couldn't possibly get more deranged or bugnuts crazy (if you'll pardon the expression) they give us visually implied castration (well, more than just "implied") in an attempt to impress a former rugby player.

• This show is truly doing things that it's US counterpart TRULY could not get away with in their wildest dreams (even with Sarah Squirm as a full time staffer)

• I mean, I heard Great Britain had much more relaxed TV censorship laws than we do here in the states but JESUS!

• ...and of course they have to transition directly from this into the good nights because how else are they going to top themselves tonight? A+

Ranking SNL UKs First Series From Best To Worst

1. Jamie Dornan/Wolf Alice (03.28.2026)
2. Tina Fey/Wet Leg (03.21.2026)

Overall Thoughts

• This episode was a bit more uneven than lasts weeks, but the back half was filled with a lot of wild surprises that really hyped me up. Sure, there were a few sketches that I wasn't crazy about but most of them grew on me on rewatch and what actually did hit with me really hit much more strongly compared to last week.

• I initially struggled with how to rank these two episodes against each other because this episodes' monologue and movie set sketch drag it down a little but it's last three sketches made up for that just by working much better than most of last week's entire show did.

• Jamie Dornan seemed a little shaky at first, but he actually surprised me and showed he was into it. I guess I wouldn't have been surprised had I seen him in "Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar".

• Cast usage seemed a little more balanced since they focused more on the exact cost members that weren't featured as much last week (especially the women). It's great to see this show getting a good handle on how best to use it's own much more manageable cast.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, that was fun. Next week, Riz Ahmed makes his SNL UK hosting debut. He's definitely one of those actors whose name I've heard but I know I haven't gotten around to seeing anything he's been in yet. It will be nice going into one of these completely blind with no preset expectations.

• Next week may be a little crowded since SNL US makes its return from this two week break it's been on with host Jack Black and musical guest Jack White. The following week, Colman Domingo makes his hosting debut. 

• I liked Jack's previous episode from last year and Colmans' undoubtedly a huge get for the show right now so I'm hoping they can bring a fresh, renewed energy to the show that can compete with SNL UK, being filled with young and hungry writers and performers eager to prove themselves as they are vs. SNL US being filled with some if the same voices that have been hanging around for the last 5-20 years leaving others fighting for scraps.

• Also, please listen to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast where we review the Brian Williams/Feist episode from season 33. After that, we'll be reviewing Documentary Now Season One with "The Eye Doesn't Lie".

• See you again real soon, kids!