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.”