Peter Serafinowicz, who has starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Star Wars prequel “The Phantom Menace,” opened “Saturday Night Live U.K.” with a guest appearance as right-wing politician Nigel Farage.
The cold open began with a voice-over explaining that the year is 1946 as it zoomed into the British Prime Minister’s residence of Downing Street in London.
A grey-haired man is seated at his desk with his back to the audience, leading the audience to assumes it’s probably “SNL U.K.” castmember George Fouracres playing Keir Starmer again. But as the man spins round in his chair, he’s revealed to be Serafinowicz as Farage, whose Reform party made huge gains across local elections in the U.K. this week in real life. The parody Farage, meanwhile, is on his cell phone (emblazoned with an English flag) wishing Sir David Attenborough a happy 120th birthday.
As he hangs up, he says “I love being Prime Minister” before “SNL U.K.” cast member Ayoade Bamgboye enters the room as Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, with Farage welcoming her as his deputy. “Big news day, Prime Minister,” she tells him. “Thanks to our deportations, the population of London is finally down to single fingers.”
Farage replies: “Excellent, excellent.”
Badenoch adds: “And one last thing; King Trump assures us he’s almost negotiated a ceasefire over the Strait of Hormuz.”
The duo then bond over what a great team they make since merging their respective parties, before Farage announces they’re late for the “straight pride parade” and they head off.
At which point Fouracres enters — dressed as beleaguered Starmer — alongside Celeste Dring as former deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who resigned last year after it emerged she had underpaid tax on her second home. It’s revealed they have traveled to the future by time machine to show Starmer what might happen if he doesn’t resign following disastrous results for Labour in this week’s council elections.
Fouracres looks at the paper where he sees Farage has been Prime Minister the entire time – and notes that “SNL U.K.” has been renewed for another season (as Variety exclusively revealed last week) – before Rayner urges him to stand aside so she can lead the party.
At which point Al Nash walks in through the time machine closet as Winston Churchill before the trio reel off the classic “Live from London, it’s Saturday Night!” intro.
variety.com
#Peter #Serafinowicz #Guest #Stars #Nigel #Farage #SNL #U.K #Cold #Open
