SNL UK’s Larry Dean: ‘That heckle was so harsh it left my heart pounding!’

Behind the scenes, SNL UK is genuinely a combination of mayhem and meticulous organisation. Making a show from scratch from Monday to Saturday is chaotic, but they’ve got the best of the best in the crew — the wardrobe people, the camera crew, the set designers — and, he says, there have been moments he’s thought: are we going to pull this off?

Every single time, they manage brilliantly. He remembers getting the call in Daniel Sloss’s bedroom — Sloss woke him up — and jokes that he makes up a different story every time now. The cutting process is brutal: a table read where everyone brings ideas, a Wednesday meeting with writers and producers to decide what moves to dress rehearsal on Saturday, and then a post-dress-rehearsal meeting where three or four sketches are usually dropped.

Lorne Michaels told them to learn to let things go for the good of the show, and that sense of team has stuck. “You just go: OK, cool.

United Kingdom

snl uk, larry dean, daniel sloss, lorne michaels, sketch comedy, dress rehearsal, table read, writers, producers, camera crew