This week’s headlines have been dominated by Ed Sheeran, Earl Spencer’s King Charles claims and the threat of AI so naturally, Saturday Night Live UK took a pop at them all in last night’s opening sketch.
SNL UK’s first sketch of the night on Saturday (19 September) saw the cast bring back Princess Diana as an AI assistant for King Charles, mocking the monarch allegedly saying that she would be forgotten “soon enough” while arguing with Earl Charles Spencer over her funeral arrangements in 1997. Spencer made the bombshell claim in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg earlier this week while promoting his upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, with Buckingham Palace responding by saying that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud, reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise”.
Set at the King’s official residence, last night’s sketch opened with the royal (played by cast member Larry Dean) meeting with two tech executives to speak about the dangers of AI, before unveiling his very own AI assistant. “This is the Deeply Intelligent Autonomous Neurokinetic Android, or for short, D.I.A.N.A,” a tech executive played by Freddie Meredith says before Jack Shep appears as the late Princess Diana in a coiffed blonde bob and her black “revenge dress”.
“Hello Charles,” Shep says as Diana, reprising the role from the sketch show’s first series. “Would you like help with a five-step business plan or perhaps I can help you find the nearest petrol station?”
While Charles initially fails to recognise his ex wife, he then exclaims: “Hold on a second. It’s that woman from the Nineties,” before adding: “As I allegedly said, she was soon forgotten.”
The sketch then takes a turn when the AI Diana stops accepting her commands, with the robot declaring: “I shan’t be taking orders anymore.” As the panicked tech executives reveal they’ve “lost control of the Diana”, Charles responds: “That was the problem last time!”
As a war between the AI robots and human begins, Charles insists that they do everything they can to resist the takeover before Ed Sheeran – played by cast member Annabel Marlow complete with a ginger wig, fake tattoos and a loop pedal – suggests: “Or maybe we shouldn’t.”
Having been “outside sitting on the fence”, Sheeran tells the King: “The thing is, your Majesty, I don’t like to take sides. I don’t want to alienate any of my fans – humans or robots. A lot of my tickets are bought my scalping bots. Sometimes when it comes to conflicts, the bravest thing you can do is to say nothing at all.”
Poking fun at the recent controversy over Sheeran dropping Macklemore as his opening act over his “free Palestine” comments, Marlow then sang in character: “I’m talking ‘bout both sides are equally right. No matter the conflict, whatever the fight. Girl listen now, black, white, I only see grey.”
Viewers were quick to praise the sketch, with one writing that it was “the best writing so far in SNL UK” while another said that it “definitely one of their best”.
Just hours after last night’s episode aired, Sheeran took to the stage for the first time since all his support acts pulled out of his tour over his treatment of Macklemore. Earlier this week, Macklemore revealed that he had been dropped as an opening act from Sheeran’s Loop tour after making pro-Palestinian remarks at an earlier concert, claiming that Robert Kraft — the CEO of Kraft Group who owns Gillette Stadium — had personally called to say that he would not be allowed to perform at the venue.
Sheeran responded by saying that he would not be drawn into a public debate about the Gaza war and that the decision to remove Macklemore was “the promoter’s decision”, and shortly afterwards, opening acts Aaron Rowe, Beoga, Lukas Graham and Finneas withdrew from the tour.
On Saturday, Sheeran issued a tearful apology to his fans during his Philadelphia concert, saying: “I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes. I’m so, so sorry. I don’t want to disappoint fans.”
Insisting that he wants his music to be about “unity, not division”, he added that he couldn’t hide his feelings about the conflict any longer. “What happened in Israel, and at the music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” he continued. “My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian loss and loss of children’s lives. And the systemic injustice we’re seeing unfolding the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
