All hail Saturday Night Live UK!

Who'd have thought it? Having talented comedians make comedy paid off, writes Steve Bennett

Two words about Saturday Night Live UK as its first season draws to a close: nailed it.

The show has been a triumph, overcoming typical British cynicism that we could ever pull off a home-grown version of the venerable American comedy institution. But, I’d venture, it’s not only matched the quality of its esteemed parent, but surpassed it.

That it was a hit was palpable from the first episode, the frisson of hearing ‘Live From London’ for the first time, the cameos in Tina Fey’s first monologue, the first edgy filmed sketch about Undérage by Pedolay and THAT glance from Jack Shep’s Princess Diana that became an instant meme.

And it’s only reinforced its position in each of the subsequent episodes. Let’s get the provisos out of the way that not every sketch works, of course, and the makers sometimes fall into the same self-indulgent trap as the original in letting them play out for too long. But the hit rate is more than enough.

While I could list individual aspects that don’t quite come off, most crucial is how SNL UK works as a whole. And on that front it feels exciting, relevant, daring and funny. Though the demands of making a 75-minute live show in a week must be immense, the cast seem to be having a great time. They exude a silliness and playfulness, which they mix with the satire and the absurdity to make each scene funnier than what’s on the page.

The live aspect certainly adds a frisson, even though most of the young target demographic don’t actually watch it live, given they’d likely be out on a Saturday night and never much adhered to linear scheduling anyway.

The guest hosts – and frequent cameos – add stardust. Producers have rightly avoided using comedians, save for Jack Whitehall, who’s a bona fide Hollywood figure but still one of the less exciting bookings. Much as Jimmy Carr or Romesh Ranganathan would be able to do a great job, their ubiquity comes at the expense of feeling special.

That the show has given a platform for the depth of comedy talent that might otherwise struggle to get recognition beyond the Edinburgh Fringe (or, in some cases, their own social media followings) is a huge boon for the comedy industry as a whole – and surely proved to audiences that there is life, talent and originality beyond the names familiar from the now-declining panel show circuit.

Hopefully, this will encourage more commissioners and producers to a) look beyond the familiar and b) actually employ comedians to do comedy – rather than bakery, pottery, quiz shows, dancing, escape rooms, castle-based treachery… anything but the skill they’re best at. Yes, a truckload of money was thrown at it – £2million an episode, reportedly – which helps the sense of scale and occassion... but silliness can cost very little.

George Fouracres is so obviously the breakout star, but there’s a full supporting team behind their MVP. Emma Sidi’s Woman Who Can’t Be Ignored lights up the screen every time she appears while Hammed Animashaun strikes a brilliant balance in making the preposterous seem credible… everyone has something they do uniquely well. Even cast members who seem underused can pull it out the bag when needs be: see Larry Dean’s Louis Theroux impersonations in last night’s episode.

Overnight audiences have been modest (between 226,000 for the opener to just 86,420 last night, scheduled against Eurovision) but over the ensuing seven days, viewing figures hit the 500,000 to 780,000 range. Clips are on fire online – even though Sky’s business model means it must protect a lot of the content for paying subscribers, not release it for free.

That the show is retuning in September for a longer run of 12 episodes is the second best bit of news for British comedy in years. The best was the fact Sky took the plunge in the first place, in a multimillion pound gamble that looks like it’s paid off in spades.