Saturday Night Live UK is here - but can it make you laugh?

Walking into the Saturday Night Live UK studios for the first time, it's clear much time and money has been pumped into helping this show succeed.

A hubbub of energy fills every corridor - from the extensive costume and wig department, to the huge team building pop-up sets around the show's main stage.

The British version of the US comedy sketch show, which has a cult following and has been running for more than 50 years, launches on Saturday night.

And the cast of British comedians and writers have huge shoes to fill as they try to create a transatlantic success story.

An early promotional teaser has met with mixed reception online. But when BBC News visited the show's London studios for an exclusive tour this week, those involved told us they hoped viewers would arrive with an open mind.

"We're not going out there saying, 'Let's make this show really British for British people'," SNL UK cast member Annabel Marlow tells the BBC. "We're basically writing what we all find really funny."

"But also we all live here so naturally there's going to be references that people in the audience will understand."

Her co-star Ayoade Bamgboye says making sketches feel distinctly British has been her "North Star from the very beginning" - and it feels like "there's always someone to catch you" on the team.

Marlow, 24, has a background in musical comedy and previously starred in Six The Musical. Bamgboye, 31, is a stand-up who won best newcomer at the 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

They're joined by nine other cast members from around the UK - Hammed Animashaun, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young.

The show's writing team includes 8 Out of 10 Cats writer Charlie Skelton, Stath Lets Flats actor and comedian Al Roberts and Have I Got News For You's Bella Hull.

Before rehearsals began, the group flew to America to meet creator and executive producer of the US show Lorne Michaels, who is also overseeing the UK version.

"There is a blueprint and foundation that works so they haven't guarded that stuff," Bamgboye says. "They've been so open with what works."

There are many elements that make SNL a hit in the US - as a heritage brand it continues to attract big name stars as hosts, often because they're fans of the show or respect its longevity and awards success.

It means it could be harder to bring hosts with similar levels of fame to the UK version, but the first three hosts - comedian and former SNL host Tina Fey, and actors Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed, may well bring in viewers.

Fey has been working with the cast for a couple of weeks and is said to have been generous with her time, including reading through their sketches.

"We're not taking it for granted," Bamgboye says. "As female comedians, especially if you've been performing on stage, we just have to be so prepared and it's been glorious to watch her be so prepared even at this stage of her career."

Lead producer Andy Charles Smith says SNL UK will follow the same structure as its huge US counterpart - two songs from a musical guest (this week it's indie rock band Wet Leg, who are setting up as I look round), two pre-recorded sketches and four live ones.

Another somewhat surprising factor in SNL's continued cultural relevance is its success with younger audiences - with clips of the US show on social media averaging more than 200 million views per episode across TikTok, X and YouTube.

Several members of the SNL UK cast have grown their profile through social media, but Bamgboye says sketches won't be constructed in an attempt to go viral. "It's funny first," she says.

Marlow agrees: "We're just doing it for laughs and if it works as a little clip that's a bonus - but we're not doing it to be Instagrammable."

The eight-part series will be broadcast each Saturday night live in front of a studio audience and on Sky.

An earlier dress rehearsal will be used to test out material and, as in the US show, not everything from rehearsals will make it on to the live version.

The cast will use cue cards to keep sketches on track - a departure from the common use of teleprompters in the UK, but allowing last-minute changes to be made swiftly.

We're shown the cue card hub backstage, which has been set up by Wally Feresten, a legend in the business who has worked on SNL for more than 30 years.

"Wally came over for three weeks to teach the whole team how to use cue cards," Marlow says. "We did loads of workshops on how to read them during a sketch and where your eye line should be."

Fine details seem to have been thought through, including the set backdrop itself, which has been designed to reflect the original New York design but with added London elements.

Given it's a live show, things are bound to go wrong, but Marlow says she isn't worried.

"Either the audience don't know and it's fun for us to be like, 'That went a bit wrong but we all caught it'. Or they do know and it makes everyone go 'Oh great, they're human' - and people like to see that on stage," she says.

After more than 50 years in the comedy industry, Michaels also had words of wisdom for the cast.

"Saturday rolls around and it comes, it goes and you shake it off - good or bad you're going to do another show," Bamgboye recalls him saying.

"He [advised us to] absolutely not engage with the discourse. Just keep cool."