The Rest Is Entertainment - Will Saturday Night Live Thrive in The UK?

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Will the British version of Saturday Night Live be a hit or miss for audiences? Is 'The Play That Goes Wrong' the ultimate theatrical experience? And will Richard's dream of a 'Thursday Murder Club' rollercoaster become a reality at Universal's new Bedfordshire theme park? Richard Osman and Marina Hyde discuss the exciting news that Lorne Michaels is finally making a UK version of his hit comedy sketch show - Saturday Night Live. Marina talks about her love of Mischief Theatre Company and the above-a-pub play that became a worldwide phenomenom. Plus we chat about the plans for Universal Studios to build an enormous theme park in Bedfordshire, and the chaos that could follow. Join The Rest Is Entertainment Club for ad free listening and access to bonus episodes: www.therestisentertainment.com Sign up to our newsletter: www.therestisentertainment.com Twitter: @‌restisents Instagram: @‌restisentertainment YouTube: @‌therestisentertainment Email: [e-mail] Producer: Joey McCarthy
 Senior Producer: Neil Fearn Assistant Producer: Aaliyah Akude + Imogen Marriott Video Producers: Kieron Leslie + Adam Thornton + Charlie Rodwell Head Of Content: Tom Whiter Executive Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport The Rest Is Entertainment is proudly presented by Sky. Sky is home to award-winning shows such as The White Lotus, Gangs of London and The Last of Us. Visit Sky.com to find out more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Sky, which is great. TV lovers, we are delighted about. It's fantastic news. I'll be honest though, I'm also a fan of Netflix, of Disney+, of iPlayer, and this is supposed to be an advert for Sky. Well, the good thing about Sky is that it's not just good for Sky shows, it's basically an all-you-can-eat buffet for TV lovers. Mmm, buffet. So it's got everything, the niche stuff, the mainstream stuff, it's got all the apps you like,

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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Rest is Entertainment with me Marina Hyde and me Richard Osmond. Hello everybody. Hello Marina. Hello Richard. How are you? Yeah, I'm okay. Are you very well? Yeah, I'm moving house this week, which is quite a lot, isn't it? You know what? That's like the worst thing ever. Don't you think? I do. I mean, I have to try and think that, but right now I'm just, I've absconded from it to do the podcast and let's just, you know, make it a five hour one so I don't have to go back. Oh, are you literally avoiding your movers?

Oh, I'm avoiding it. I'm avoiding it all currently. Yeah. Yeah. And is your husband avoiding the movers or is he there? It's not possible, is it, when someone has to do a podcast for both people to avoid the movers. It's very important you're like one of the soldiers who went off to the war in 1939. I say that every week anyway but yeah. I like it in America when people actually move their house they put it on a load loader and drive it down. That would be a cool way to move house. Can you just keep everything and just some things have fallen out of the cupboards when

you get there because you've gone over a few speed bumps. I don't think we have any in America actually. There's beans on the floor. And hello by the way to the cabbie I just had Tony who's a listener to the podcast. I said if I was writing a cabbie Tony he'd be called Tony. I've always got Tonys in my books. Thank you Tony for listening and to all who listen. What are we talking about this week? We are talking about, Sky has announced that they are making a British version of Saturday Night Live, an official British version of Saturday Night Live.

A lot of people have a lot of opinions on it. I have an opinion which is different to many of those. We will be talking about that. I suspect your opinion might be different to mine as well, Marina. What else? I'm guessing. We're also going to be talking about Mischief Theatre, who are the brilliant theatre company behind The Play That Goes Wrong and various spin-offs of that. They've got a new comedy opening in the West End and I want to talk about their amazing success story because I think it's really fascinating. Yeah, it's a really overlooked British success story that we are also going to talk about Universal, our opening theme park in Britain. We're going to talk about theme parks, we're

going to talk about Universal. Essentially we're talking around whether that sounds like a good idea or not. Absolutely. Shall we start with Saturday Night Live? Well, let's because in partnership with NBC, Sky is going to make their own version of it and the big sort of headline of it in a way is that it's going to be executive produced by Lorne Michaels, who of course is the presiding creative genius or if you, unless you don't like SNL, behind Saturday Night Live, who's overseen it for sort of 50 years, bar a kind

of brief hiatus. There have been many, many, many attempts, I think we have to say, to get shows like this and shows like those big late night successes in America. Bear in mind this goes on, you know, 11.30, whatever it is on a Saturday night. One of the interesting things about America is that they watch TV a load much later at night than the UK does, which is why I don't know, things like The Daily Show, all the late night talk shows, all of those are really big things Saturday night. It's crazy, honestly, I get to the end of interior design masters at 9pm and we're like, better hit the hay. Imagine you have to stay up for another three and a half hours. Yeah, but it's just a fact of their kind of TV existence is that they do stay out later on,

which is why these shows have all different types of these kind of late night shows, late night comedy shows have been iconic and chat shows and successful. And one of the reasons why they haven't worked in the past over here, but there have been so many attempts. Yeah, Friday Night Live, Channel 4 has done it. Everyone tries to do these sort of shows. Well, I was going to go through the various different attempts. We've had, well, there was Saturday Live, Friday Night Live, Live back in the 80s, then the 11 o'clock show, Tonightly, the late edition with Marcus Briggs, recommended daily amount,

MASH Report, 10 o'clock live. 10 o'clock live, that was one of mine. But then, funny enough, things like last week tonight, which is John Oliver's show, I mean, I think he has acknowledged and be one of the first people to acknowledge that it was quite based on, although he came up via The Daily Show, it was quite based on something much older. That was the week that was, which was, you know, BBC, David Frost before he became Starhumpa. What should I say? Can we say? Before he became Lord Frost, Brexit Minister. That's a different David Frost.

That's a different David Frost. And so there have been so many attempts over the years to kind of... All of which have failed. Yeah. Why have they failed, do you think? A number of reasons. And certainly when this was announced, the glee with which almost every single commentator, almost every single person in the industry said, well, this isn't going to work. This is going to be terrible. The actual Saturday Night Live itself is terrible. You actually watched the whole episode. It's so awful. And I kind of get it. Well, listen,

why has Saturday Night Live in America worked? Would be the question. And people seem to think that Saturday Night Live is about 5,000 different things. Saturday Night Live will fill whatever vacuum it is you think is missing on television. So people go, oh, it's a satire show, it's this or the other. Saturday Night Live is a sketch show. All it is, it is a sketch show and they are allowed to show sketches on television because they have a big name guest hosting, it's clever. They have a music act, people always switch off in the music acts, but Lorne Michael says it gives us relevance though. You know, without it, we lose the context of what this show is. Even though, NBC, I'll tell you, the ratings drop off a cliff every time the first note

of music is played. You will always have it because he said it just makes people feel like this show belongs to them. But it is a sketch show. That's all it is. It's a sketch show that breaks new performers, introduces new performers and new writers. Once a week you have these sketches.

Now in America, the money they spend is immense. I mean, it's immense. I was talking to someone who's working with Lorne Michaels and he said on the Wednesday they built this set, they said it's the single most expensive set they'd ever built on Saturday Night Live. I mean, it's proper, you know, like a whole series of a British quiz show type set. Rehearsal on Friday, they scrapped the sketch, they scrapped the set and they can do that.

They can pay writers a lot, they can pay performers a lot. And so it is just a very, very, very high end sketch show with very big guests on it. And it had probably reached roughly the end of its road just at the time when television became all about viral moments and became about, have you got something for us that's two minutes long and clipable? And Saturday night I go, yeah.

Something like the last season was, it's something like 3.1 billion views of the clips, which is crazy because, yeah because it's made for that. So that's what it is. And if you're hearing about Saturday Night Live and go, yeah, but I've watched it and it's got boring, but do you think? Yeah. I mean, welcome to television.

But what it is, it's been this machine for years and years and years producing stars, producing big spin-offs. And now it is essentially a clip machine as well is the thing and every week it gets in the press because they've got big you know guests on it and big music guests so it's noisy and it provides an awful lot of viral moments. Now in the UK we do not have the money to make a show like that so in America on Tuesday in the States the writers, and there's a lot of them going and pitch to Lorne and the other producers, Lorne and the producers go off into a little room, decide the sketches they want for that week, loads more than are going to be shown,

go back to those writers, those writers then become a producer for a week on that sketch and they're given incredible resources just to make a... And we all know, and they famously kind of sleep in the office and you never really leave and you know, and it's just this whole, it's all consuming thing. Also, can I just say one other thing which is that they have that is different to us is that they have this massive tradition of improvised comedy, which is where these, you know, we say they're bright new, but these people have all done improv in places like Second City, which started in Chicago, but is

also in New York, Groundlings, all these kind of nationwide improv troops, they have a huge tradition and actually having worked with American actors on sync comps, they've all done improv and they all still sometimes do improv nights in LA. They still also, so they're so good at like all the ad living and stuff like that because that's where they come from and we don't you know As you say people go into as we've talked about how many times people go into stand-up So that the reasons that it hasn't really worked over here despite the fact We're a very funny country and there's lots of talent behind the camera and in front of the camera is there's not quite enough money We don't work in the way that they do

There's very few rooms that you would be working the hours they do on Saturday I think they as you say we don't have the that they do. There's very few rooms that you would be working the hours they do on Saturday night live. Well that's the thing though, but they pay them. And as you say, we don't have the... We don't have that, but that's another part of this is the sort of UK commissioning process where you're always, you know, there'll be a long off season, are you going to get another season? You're kind of, okay, at some point obviously they're going to cancel SNL in the States and that's at some point going to happen. But in general, you know you're coming back, your season runs from October till May,

which is really, really long, and they kind of always have a couple of repeats within that. But you know you're doing 22 episodes. It's not like, oh, we're gonna do 10 episodes and see how it goes, or even eight episodes and see how it goes. This is everyone on that show's 100% main job. And okay, sometimes when you're really successful in the SNL cast in order to

like keep you sweet and keep you coming back, Lorne might let you do a comedy film in the off season, okay? And you might be allowed to do that. But in general, whereas all our comics at the moment, you know, they've got, you can see why they do it, they've got this panel show, they've got that, this is, you know, it's a sort of comedian's equivalent of a fragrance line. You know, I need to be diversified. I need to have one panel show. I need to like do Taskmaster. I need to, you know, whatever it all is. And you kind of put together a year for yourself. Yeah, a career in that way. And I'll do some touring. I'll do, you know, and it's, it's a sort of tessellation in lots of ways. Whereas this is like that, this is then a huge focus. It's the apex in lots of ways of their comic culture,

or there'll be lots of disagreement on that. But you know what I mean. Nonetheless, it is a prestige job to have, and as is writing on it, but it is your full commitment. Yeah, and all of these points have been made at volume this week by people saying, what on earth is Sky doing? And this is so stupid and that, you know, it's not gonna work in Britain. We've tried it so many times, it's not gonna, you know, oh, it's gonna be hosted by Robin Ramesh earth is Sky doing? And this is so stupid and that, you know, it's not gonna work in Britain.

We've tried it so many times. It's not gonna, you know, oh, it's gonna be hosted by Robin Ramesh, isn't it? And all of this stuff. And can I, I just want to- I love Robin Ramesh. Oh, me too. I mean, I don't need to see him hosting Saturday Night Live.

I do hate SNL, but we'll come to that. Yeah, you know what? It sounds like it, but it sounds like the whole of British culture hates SNL as well. I will- A lot of American culture does too. I will say this about what's happening. I would say to every single writer, every single TV writer, every single person in the

industry, you know what? Why don't we just get behind this one? Because there's not much money left in telly and the money that is, is going into drama and it's going into things like this. Sky are spending a lot of money on this, a lot of money, and they're casting new people, they're casting new talent, new comic talent. If you talk to the people who've been approached,

it's not the same old faces. It's not as, it's a review of The Guardian of Last One Laughing that described the cast as members of the Cats Does Countdown cinematic universe. And by the way, that's an amazing group of people to Does Countdown cinematic universe and by the way that's an amazing group of people to get for your show and that was a huge hit for Amazon. I loved it.

But Sky are not going to do that. Sky are going to go for newcomers, you're going to go for new writers and if I can just give a modest proposal as to why this might work. A modest proposal. By the way nothing works. That's the first thing we know in TV. Yeah. But we try anyway. So nothing works, but you've got to do something. Now on this, firstly, it is Lorne's idea. So Lorne is behind it. Lorne is coming across that immediately makes some noise. Lorne also, for whatever you might think about him, is an amazing talent scout. I was talking to a big comic who had done an interview

with Lorne and he said, look, if you and I were to sit in a room and Pete Davidson was to come in and do an audition for us, we'd be like, huh? He said, but he comes in and Lorne sees him and goes, oh, this is our guy, right? He's just very, very good at finding people who other people won't find and he's going to be part of the process of finding the talent for this show. So that I think is interesting. The fact that they're skipping a generation and going for younger comics and younger comic voices, this is a group of people, this is a generation who are unbelievably good at giving you one minute, two minute, three minute pieces of content. Yeah, because we've seen them and we see them on on on the all the various platforms. All the time. Yeah. And I would say to anybody in the industry at

the moment these people are filming that at home. Yeah. Right. All they are is funny. Right. Which is all you really really need to be. But as an industry here is an opportunity. Lor Michael's is coming over and Sky are putting a lot of money behind it that could be spent elsewhere. And there's plenty of people at Sky who think they shouldn't be spending money on that could be spent elsewhere and there's plenty of people at Sky who think they shouldn't be spending money on comedy should be spent elsewhere. It's going on comedy and every single one of these people that currently making one minute two minute videos at home they're going to be in a room with writers, new young writers, they're going to be filmed by

camera operators, they're going to be in one of our studios, they're going to be using our edit suites. You know this is a big thing for the comedy community. It's a big thing for the television community. This is a really, really big commission and it's a commission because it's Lorne and because it's Saturday night live. If you or I or anybody at home, any producer was, would they say, right, I'm going to pitch 12 new young comics and 12 new young writers. Okay. It doesn't get off the ground for obvious reasons. You know, you can't, especially, no, it's 12 new young writers. Okay. It doesn't get off the ground for obvious reasons. You know, especially, no, it's 12 new young comics, 12 new young writers, and it costs an absolute fortune. Okay. That would be the dream for all of us. That's what every comedy

producer wants to do. Let me go out and find that talent. Give me an absolute load of money. Make a load of noise. Spend a lot of marketing money on it. That's what they would love to do. You can't do that. That is what is happening here. That is if you really, really, if you don't look at the car and the colour of the car, if you look underneath the bonnet, that is what is happening. New young talent, new writers, a load of money being thrown at it and Lorne's name on the top of it. The provisor of course is nothing ever works, of course it won't work, but it just might. And I tell you what, either way I would love to read the oral history of it because, although

I say I hate SNL, I don't know why, I love reading about it. Yeah, it's amazing. I actually loved that, which I knew no one else would like or not enough people would like, the Saturday night, the Jason Reitman film that just came out recently about it. I loved it. I knew I would. But there's a brilliant book called Live From New York. If you ever want to read a great book about SNL, even if you hate it, it's so good by James Andrew Miller. And it's an oral history of

Saturday Night Live. And it is, you know, and he's basically spoke to everyone apart from, you know, rest of the rest of the souls, the ones who are no longer with us. And even then he had to go. Well, you know, I think he was able to sort of extracting some old interviews, but it's so, I mean, it's so involving. I absolutely loved it. Curtis Sittenfeld, who is an author I absolutely love. I remember when I was like, Oh my God, she's doing a new book and it's called Romantic Comedy. Amazing. And it's like, what? It's set behind the scenes on basically on SNL. It's called something else, but it's basically SNL. Having said that, of course, I loved it. But also, you know, obviously 30 Rock, which is, I mean, they had so many shows. That was that freak season where NBC, they have Saturday Night

Live, which is obviously coming back. They have 30 Rock, which is a new comedy at the time, which was one of the great TV comedies and I absolutely love, which is about basically... Probably maybe the best ever. It's so good, which is basically about SNL. And then they also have my guilty favourite hate watch Studio 60 on the sunset script strip Which is also basically about SNL So it is their huge thing in lots and lots of ways I some I often feel you know Satire isn't a format and I do sometimes feel it's a bit like their off-brand version of football or whatever

You know like hi We've also got a version of the rest of the world's got a version of it well, which we like much more and so, you know, why are you calling baseball the World Series? Because, you know, that it's sort of that thing. But I totally agree with you that all those young people you see all the time, just doing absolutely low-fi but brilliantly, genuinely, really funny, small pieces of thing. Why not? Why not try it? And it's great. Skipping a generation is absolutely crucial because nobody's interested in it. I mean those people can come along and play whoever, play Rachel Reade, I don't even know what I'm saying. This is the problem with a show.

That's the thing, people kind of, there's a lot of people talking about it are under the impression it is a satirical show and it's, I mean it sort of is, you know, they'll do cold opens about Donald Trump but it's funniest when it's just sketches about people. Yeah it's much funniest when it's just sketches about people. Yeah, it's much better when it's funny things happening. And there's got to be a room for that. I know, you know, Channel 4 bringing back Mitchell and Webb and sketch comedy should be on its way back, is the truth. We know that it's expensive, but there are now different ways of kind of monetising things. But sketch comedy is made for our times because...

Of the virality. This show, which everyone will slug off after three minutes, everybody will slug it off because it's sort of, and it's not a jealousy, but it's everyone likes to think, I wish they would give me the reins of a show like this. I'd show them what to do. And you wouldn't. Oh my God, I would hate the reins of a show like this. They're hard to make, but after three minutes everyone will sag it off. All you've got to do on the show, James Longman and Susan.

I was about to say, James Longman is going to be the showrunner. James Longman and Susan Upland are going to be the showrunners and will be very, very good at it. See, they're from a generation who knows how to make television and they're going to bring on a generation who has not made television, which I think is a good combination. James Longman is an interesting one. He's worked on loads of big British shows, but then went over to the States to work on James Corners, the late show, and sort of is one of those very few people who can do American ambition and British sensibility, which is very, very hard to do. And it's going

to be absolutely key to this Saturday Night Live as well. But you know, we'd go over there, writers love him, performers love him. So you sort of couldn't pick a better person. Yeah, but things like Carpool Karaoke, you talk about something that just like, can come, one viral thing can define a show, not that that was all that that show was about, but that particular thing where every single week that went viral. Exactly. But if you're James or Susie, the one thing they know, they've got an hour each week with a shop window for comedy, they will be so much noise around that show and so much static around that show of people telling them it's going to fail or people saying, why have you chosen that person?

Why have you done that? This sketch was terrible. They just have to sit there and think, no, I've got an hour each week to showcase really, really interesting people, to give some money to some really, really interesting people. And do you know what? In the perfect format for our time. In the perfect format for our times. If one thing on that show goes viral, it's a hit. If there's one thing that suddenly is getting millions upon millions upon millions of views, if there's one character who really comes off, if there's one sketch that kind of captures the times, that's the biggest deal. And it's not going to be, oh, look, they've got someone playing kiss drama, doing a joke about, I mean, forget all that. That's sort biggest deal. And it's not going to be, oh, look, they've got someone playing Kirste Armer doing a joke about it.

I mean, forget all that. That's sort of meaningless. What it is is a new generation of young talent. This might be the final opportunity. I won't be surprised if it is. It might be the final opportunity for traditional television to dip its hand into its pocket and give a huge amount of money to the next generation of comic

talent. I think it might be the last time that happens and it happens because of a man in his 80s, Lorne Michaels, and a show which people widely deride Saturday Night Live. But I think that it is beholden on anyone who works in the industry, certainly anyone who works in the comedy industry, which has been decimated, to kind of go, do you know what? Maybe we'll just, why not give them a series. It's a little bit like what we were saying last week when we were talking about CinemaCon and saying that actually people used to watch their rivals to fail, but now you see the studios actually wanting their rivals to have hits. We should want people to have hits in

comedy. Yeah. Last One Laughing has been a huge hit for Amazon. That's great because that's bringing Amazon money into the British comedy infrastructure and entertainment infrastructure. If Sky would have a hit with Saturday Night Live or something that counts as a hit for them, their return on investment really is marketing and this could work very well as marketing. If suddenly you've got Sky Money and Amazon Money comfortable being in British comedy and comfortable being in British comedy television, then that is good news for every single editor, every single production assistant, every single camera operator, every single sound person. I mean, it's just good news.

Let that rising tide lift all boats, Richard. Let that rising tide lift all boats. And to amuse all boats as well. And you know, I've talked to people on all sides of it and everyone knows, everyone knows what they're doing. Everyone knows that it's a swing. Everyone absolutely gets it. I think the fact that the sky is quite useful because you won't have the big overnight, it's the big oh my god it did this, it did that. It can actually sort of allow itself to progress a little bit. But yeah, if they can get two or three

stars out of the first series, two or three sketches that really, really, really work. That's interesting. Do you just think people are helped by not being in that overnight kind of treadmill of people just being able to look straight away? Yeah, a million percent. And obviously Amazon where we have no idea. Yeah. Well, we talked last week about Black Mirror and one of the key things about Annabelle and Charlie going to Netflix is they understood that there weren't overnight ratings and so actually they could build something.

It's like a tyranny. Yeah, but it is a tyranny. It's slightly disappeared now because of the way that TV works, but for years it's absolutely the tyranny. For Sky, Sky's TV really and Sky's spend is marketing spend. Sky want you to subscribe to things, that's their business. And if you can make a noise on that channel, then that's good enough for Sky. And I don't mean that in a cynical way at all. That's just that's, that's their business. And as a producer, great, if you've got marketing money to give me, I will gladly take it. But

yeah, it puts, it puts much less pressure. Whereas on the PSPs, they've got to basically make the top tens. All the time you're trying to make the top ten. If you look at A League of Their Own, if you actually look at the viewing numbers for A League of Their Own, it's not nothing but it doesn't compare to terrestrial comedy. However, it's got big names on it. Every time it's on you'll sort of watch a few minutes. It has viral moments, it's really well made and that for Sky is what they want. They want something that says there is quality stuff on Sky, there's people you know on Sky doing interesting funny things. So it's an entirely different metric and the success or failure of SNL on Sky will be entirely a different matter than the success or failure

of it on ITV or Channel 4 or the BBC. I've never wanted anything to succeed more now. Oh that's good. I've never wanted anything to succeed more now. Oh that's good. I've never wanted anything to succeed. That's good. Let's do this. And of course because it's Sky and because it's Lorne, you know, you can have all this new talent because you'll have huge stars in the middle of it, hosting it.

You'll have big music acts, you'll have big names from Hollywood or from wherever it is, so you will have that noisiness. And the cameos in the sketches. The cameos in the sketches, but the engine room is new talent doing new things to a new audience with money they've never seen before. Please capture everything for the oral history and potentially even a backstage documentary. You just retain the footage because I will want to read about it at some point. Shall we go to a break and then talk about another success story for British comedy and

British theatre? We talk about Mischief Theatre and we'll also talk about Universal Studios Bedfordshire. Yes please. That's not what they're going to brand it as I don't think. It's not like you know the Universal Tour in Hollywood. Universal Studios Bedfordshire. This episode is brought to you by Sky where you can watch the highly anticipated second season of the award-winning The Last of Us. Richard, I am very excited that The Last of Us is back on our screens. I watched the entire first series. It was emotional. It was bleak. It was brilliant TV. It follows Joel, played

by Pedro Pascal, who is tasked with escorting Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, who's a teenage girl. She's immune to a deadly infection and he has to transport her across a post-apocalyptic America in which they face these infected clickers and much more. Season two I think picks up five years later they're living in a community of survivors. They've done a time jump. They've picked a whole time jump, might just be five years since they filmed the first one so it's fair enough isn't it? From what I hear my nerves my nerves the second season sounds like it's going to be even more intense. There's conflict brewing everywhere, not just on the outside with the infected and all the different factions among them, but inside between Joel and Ellie too.

Yes, if you're into emotional gut punches, high stakes world building and brilliant performances, this show is for you. Watch the brand new series of the award winning The Last of Us available on Sky now. Welcome back everyone. Now Marina, I'm absolutely going to hand this bit over to you, the Mischief Theatre Company. I really want to talk about this because first of all, their new play, the comedy about spies opens at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End. I think it started with previews last night and it's sort of, it opens very soon. It's

a sort of 1960s spy caper and it's the latest production by Mischief Theatre. Now they are an amazing British entertainment story and I just find how they've built it and how quickly, really incredible. They're famous for the play that goes wrong. It is sort of a country house murder, played us farce, but it plays about with, I mean, there's lots of pratfalls and just funny physical comedy. Yeah, and it's a sort of meta thing because you see the technicians accidentally on stage, there's elements of noises off all of those sort of things, backstage, front stage stuff. Yeah, it's a riot, which has been huge.

It's been huge around the world, right, the play that goes wrong. Absolutely, and now we'll come to that, but their origin story is they basically start as a group of students at Lambda, the London Drama School, when they're still students and it's a sort of improv company. Some of them left afterwards and a few others joined. Three of that company, Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayre and Henry Lewis, write their first version of the play that goes wrong. Then they put it on above a pub, which is the old red line in Islington, in 2012. Obviously they don't have any necessarily great expectations and it's short, but it does very well above

the pub. Around the whole country there's people doing that sort of thing all the time. People getting together and we're going to do our first thing, we're going to put this together and most of them we don't hear from. Again, it was just a load of fun and we'll go on and work for Goldman Sachs. Yeah, they do not go on to work for Goldman Sachs. Anyway, it's a sort of successful word of mouth and they get the smaller space at Trafalgar Studios where it can go on for a sort of limited run. Then they go to the Edinburgh Festival with it, which we know is a sort

of great proving ground and discovery ground. And Kenny Wax, who's a really big British theatre producer, Kenny Wax, who is a good Kenny Wax. Kenny Wax is a brilliant name. I love it. Kenny Wax. He sounds like a Detroit DJ from early 90s. 100% but anyway, and so those kind of injections of interest in cash, they are able to get a second act together and they do a six month tour of it in 2014. So this is basically barely a decade ago because the tour is successful, you know, around the regions. Can I say everyone I know who's been to see the play that goes wrong by themselves with family or whatever comes out and just goes, that was unbelievable.

That was so funny. It's so I'm going to get onto that because then Nymac theatre has come and it goes on at the Duchess in the West End and they're supposed to be a 12 week run. They don't think they're going to make it but anyway, they're very excited to be there. Ten years later, it is still on in the West End. There are replica productions of this all over the world. There's one on right now even in Ukraine. Five million people have bought tickets for Mischief shows. But as I say, this didn't really sort of meaningfully exist not much more than a decade ago. The play that goes right more like.

Yeah, they go to Broadway with it and they kind of just work for the whole of their six months visas and then it runs for another 18 months on Broadway. And then it moves to off-Broadway where it is still going. No way. Yes. Then they have all these other spin-off shows like Grown Ups, other types of Goes Wrong, Magic Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. They have a TV show on the BBC that was a hit for two

seasons. First of all, it is, as I say, that is an extraordinary success. It's really amazing that kind of basically from being very young, some people just built that up from nowhere. It is a sort of celebration of silliness and farce and lots of that type of comedy, which I'm going to come on to in a bit. I do think that they do ask a question which I know you have spent your life asking, but not that many people, fewer than you would think people in the creative industry to ask this question which is what would people actually like? And I do, sorry, I mean, you know, I know it's not to oversimplify but and it's something that you definitely, definitely always ask and this is a question that they definitely ask. They're now in the position where they're able to do these, I was

talking to Henry Shields who is the sort of lead but also wrote the comedy React Spies, co-wrote it with Henry Lewis. They're able now, because of the massive success of the Goes Wrong brand, to do other things. And the comedy... If they make good money, all of them. Oh, yeah. I mean, yes, because it's been so successful. If you ever... They're not about that. They're very sort of democratic. And it's weird. They're like

writer-performers in the West End, which is also quite also quite weird let's face it right down at the next door was almost next door was inside number nine and so those are two we obviously know that Rie Schoesmith and Steve Pemberton are writer performers in the West End but they're not that many. Operation Minstmeet would be another one. Although this one is selling amazingly a little bit like on Warhol Albert Hall show Richard. Funitise not monetise. So they're set apparently for this one it's just a joke it's like it's so expensive This guy David Farley's done it and they really want to entertain themselves with this one. It's really kind of complicated

It's directed by a guy called Matthew DiCarlo who directed them on Broadway and they really got on with him So they brought him back, but he understands the way they work because it is sort of democratic There are those three members I mentioned, but there's also the kind of the core members of Mischief You know, it's interesting dealing with writer performers You have to understand how they work as a group. And they really care about like keeping, you know, there's 150 tickets for 25 pounds or less at every single performance. They do care about all this sort of stuff. One of the things I think is interesting is that this type of comedy, I feel like the mood has swung a bit back towards that, you know,

a lot of Last One Laughing was just a kind of a stupidity, unpredictability, a kind of a silliness, just an escape. Again it's the Cats Does Countdown cinematic universe. Yeah it is. It's based entirely on clever stupidity. Someone like Bob Mortimer, who by the way has never been out of fashion, there's something about how absolutely massive he is at the moment and that something in the sort of culture has swung back towards that surreal escapist kind of just silly fun that really definitely, definitely Last One Laughing caught. And I just think that there's something about mischief performances that are like that. You can't leave without thinking,

you know, I was just a dick. It was really fun. Can I do two Richard Osmond's absolute sidebars? Yeah, I really want you to. One of which is we talk a lot about how tough it is to get a break and it absolutely is, but it's fascinating to see this starts above a pub, six the musical starts in a tiny room, Operation Mintsmeat the musical starts in a tiny room, three groups of people who had never done anything before, had never had a hit before and three absolute worldwide smashes. You know, lots of people spending

lots of money trying to get worldwide smashes and these were just three groups of friends who thought, oh, this would be a fun thing to do. Why don't we give this a go? And through sheer talent have made their way to worldwide stardom. In incredibly short spaces of time, really. I mean, to build something that big in that length of time, and there must have been times when they felt like, my God, this is taking a long time, but it's not. I do think it's also emblematic of the roaring success of the West End at the moment. As we've said before on this, there's no dark theatres. It's doing so much better than Broadway. Everything is so much better. Things have become, for various reasons, everything from

sort of union stuff to trouble with different audiences and getting people back off the pandemic. Everything is so expensive in Broadway and this is why so many American shows are starting over here all the time. We've talked about that before, but also why our shows are going to... So it's expensive to make. Oh my God. Because London Theatre... It's so expensive to make any money on Broadway. And you see these kind of... And they do publish their box offices. So you see the headline stuff and you see like, oh my, you

know, good night and good luck took something something like I can't remember what it was three three million dollars in a week or whatever it was it's very very hard to make money and the west end is one part of our culture that is in such unbelievable health at the moment and yeah and people are trying to bring down prices the Jamie Lloyd much do about nothing yeah has got lots of cheaper tickets and as you say the mystery of people doing cheaper tickets because you have to do it because it is insanely expensive the theatre. I understand why it is but you know it's because almost all theatre loses money. I get it. So you know it'd be nice if it was cheaper. Well done to everyone trying to get that. It'd be nice if there was more legroom. I'll say that. That's my big theatre. I mean listen

that's more important to me than it is to some people. Just create the Richard Osmond Memorial seat in every theatre and make people say that actual hype whilst booking. I'm not sure I like the sound of memorial seat. Okay, not memorial. You're right. It's not a bench. Just put a bench there. He loved to sit here. And look at the view. He loved this view.

And it's facing away from the stage. This was a man who hated theatre. My other sidebar was going to be Henry Lewis if anybody watches the ITV daytime quiz Ridiculous, which is all riddles and things like that. He is the sidekick, the Richard Osmond figure on that and seems to enjoy himself a great deal doing it too. I love both those Henrys and I love all of them. I think they're really, it's a brilliant success story and you know, as I say, the comedy about spies opens at the Noel Card, but it's in preview right now. On the basis of everything of theirs I've

seen, you will not leave the theatre sad. Okay, from a celebration of British comedy in two different ways there, a celebration of Bedfordshire. Bedfordshire, well yes, by the way, I am celebrating and we'll get to that. Universal Studios are going to open their first European theme park that's officially just a Universal Studios one. They're saying it's going to be open in 2031. It's going to be big. It's 476 acres, 28,000 jobs, 20,000 in construction and then 8,000. It's going to be worth $ billion dollars to the British economy. I've read 50 billion by 2055.

Anyway, it's supposed to open. First of all, can I just say, I can't believe it's not been blocked because we... Yeah, we block everything. Oh yeah, we block everything. This is a former brickwork site, which has been sort of defunct for a couple of decades. And they have not been Nimbys in Bedfordshire. They have been Yimbys. I'm 100% here for it. This is without any question my favourite thing to be built in Bedfordshire since the Captain Tom Memorial Spa complex, which as you know, is no longer with us. Okay, so you're going

to build a theme park, but you're going to tear down a spa complex. Okay. Mid beds, county council. I mean, I would pay to go and see that. Oh yeah. I mean, absolutely. They should actually build the captain Tom spa complex on the corner. It got 476 acres. There must be room. Yeah. Every single thing, all of it, the whole thing just, you know, lovingly recreated. And Hannah Ingramore has to live there. Yeah. So you can have it, Hannah. Well, she has to be a character. She has to be a slightly latex character.

If she won't do it, you get someone, a student, to put the costume on. But make it like Black Mirror. Say if you want a spa complex, you can have it, but you can only live in the spa complex. And be seen by tourists, many, many tourists today. But it'd be lovely. I'm very happy that we can build something in the United Kingdom. By the way, Buckinghamshire blocked a film studio. James Cameron wanted to move Lightstorm, Lightstorm 3D, which is his company, to Buckinghamshire. It's going to be called Marlowe's Film Studios. And it was blocked. Great joy and celebration by the local MP.

I think Joy Morris said, well done, I've blocked it, you know, well done. Okay, sorry, do you know what the site was? Okay, it was not a gravel pit, but a former gravel pit next to a dual carriageway. Amazing. Well done, Buckingham shire. Okay, there's a greenbelt. Sorry, it's a disused quarry. It's not green. Anyway. I digress. No, I digress. But it is very hard to get these things done. And there's a very interesting group actually, I don't know if the politics guys have done this, this is a genuine side, they're called Looking for Growth. And they're a group of people, like some real campaigners, and you may not agree with all of their politics, but they are really trying to sort of ungum

the idea that just the systems in Britain, and they're trying to bring data and strategy to it, to try and unblock things so that Britain can grow once more and that the people don't think the best days are behind it. They're all, they're young, they're kind of meeting above pubs. It's really interesting. Look into them and as I say, you don't have to agree with everything, but surely we can all agree it's better if Britain grows. Anyway, somehow Universal Studios, with or without looking for growth, managed to get planning for this thing, which hooray, it'll obviously use a lot of British steel, Richard, which I don't need to tell you. You know, it's great not to have to sell that tariffed into anywhere else or indeed,

you know, so but remember, parks are huge money spinners. Absolutely huge money spinners. Also, they're awesome. I mean, I don't like them. I would gladly go through the rest of my life and never go to a theme park. And has zero, and as soon as I see a queue, I'm not, no thanks. It is not for me. I think you could get a special wristband. Yeah, like when John Cleese was in the Bond movies, I'm not interested in queues.

God, that was a... That was one of your absolute best. That was a long walk for a small biscuit, wasn't it? So I'm not a huge fan of theme parks. I was looking at the site where this is and currently it's got huge distribution centres for Sainsbury's, Argos and Asda. And genuinely, I would be more interested to go around a huge distribution centre for Argos than I would to go around a universal theme park.

There's an interesting book about Amazon and their, you know, because they, which I always find such as sort of amazing word, they're called fulfillment centers. I mean, it really is sort of like some severance style, you know, anyway. But there's a book about that, their culture called Fulfillment, which I... But it's going to be, I think, unbelievably exciting. There's a, you know, you can't go to LA without going to the Universal Tour. You can't go to Florida without going to see Disney. I mean, it's just these things are extraordinary. And also they are about the world of entertainment,

which is, you know, we like money's going to have. Yes, let's do that. There'll be a lot of minions. I can tell you that for free. There'll be a lot of minions. Millions of minions. Jurassic, Paddington.

You can license other studios. It doesn't have to all be universal, but they're obviously not going to have any Harry Potter. Because Harry Potter, you know, the studio tour is not far away, I would say about 30 or 40 miles. But anyway, I think, I genuinely think that when the TV series starts and having, you know, I've spent a lot of my time out at Leedsden in general, and it's every time you go by the way they've doubled the size of it it's just a former aerodrome and it can constantly build. I think they will build a Harry Potter theme park there that will tie in with the studio tour for definite because once this TV, you know, if you're spending all this money and you've got

this, why wouldn't you? You can put it all together. It's absolutely their lead title So they don't have any Harry Potter stuff at this year because they won't Hollywood they do the Hollywood Universal Studios Has got a wizarding world, but they I think they won't do that here Fast and furious. Oh my god. Take me to any form of Vin Diesel ride. I will cry with laughter I'll enjoy it. So I mean I will love this so I think they've got yeah, even Lord of the Rings even though There's a base Amazon Basil says yet to get into the theme park So, I mean, I will love this. Bond, I think they've got even Lord of the Rings, even though they're both Amazon. Bezos has yet to get into the theme park business,

but you know, don't rule nothing out for the Everything Corporation. So it's going to be, I think it will be extraordinary. I just want to tell the story, if you don't know the story, just in brief, of what happened, you know, obviously one of the most famous ventures into Europe to do one of these parks is the birth of what happened. Obviously one of the most famous ventures into Europe to do one

of these parks is the birth of Euro Disney. Michael Eisen is the chief executive of Disney at the time and he's obviously the mega money person, he's in charge of the whole thing, but he does also really, really care about the sort of chorus in, I don't know, Aladdin in the second or the bridge of the second one of the songs. He really minds about all these sort of details. But anyway, they agree to do Euro Disney and the bridge of the second one of the songs. So he really minds about all these sort of details. But anyway, they agree to do Euro Disney. And the French, of course, think they're very, very classy and they don't love it. So when it's on the, he does some appearance

at the Paris Bourse, the stock exchange, and he gets pelted with eggs. Uncle Scrooge go home. That's such a sort of, yeah, sorry. He's like, okay, it's not really Scrooge. I mean, I know there is Uncle Scrooge, but it's not really a Disney property anyway. You slightly got it wrong, France, but it doesn't matter. Disney become very paranoid because they feel like you can't build fiberglass. All of the castles and all our other parks have just built

fiberglass because they're just like out in the sort of weeds of America. But here they're like, oh my God, they're surrounded by real castles. So we have to find actual pink stone to build Sleeping Beauty's castle. We can't just do some sort of kitsch rendition of it. It goes so massively over budget. Isenor is freaking out the whole time. It really, but anyway, eventually the park after masses and masses of problems does open. Needless to say, French farmers barricade the roads all around it. The president, he was met-rung at the time,

wouldn't attend. He just says, not really my cup of tea. You have to love the French to be fair. Eisner was so angry. Okay, let me tell you that, so I suppose to bring it back, whoever is prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2031 will be attending the opening of this. This thing was toured, right? I mean, you know, Stammer, Lisa and Andy, they're all going around saying, almost as though they were building it themselves. Yeah, but it's the first one in Europe and, you know, University have tried it a few times before, so this is the first one. So it is a big deal, you know, it's a huge thing.

Richard, something is being built in our country. I mean, I can't even, I'm going to have to have a lie down after this podcast. And it's IP based. Yeah. Which is our favourite sort of thing to be built. The original one in Hollywood, which funnily enough, I've been to Euro Disney as well, years ago. I have, many times. And can I give my one, I rather enjoyed it, but if I had a one word review, windswept, I would say.

It was so bleak. It was like Coney Island in the off season and yet like somewhere outside Paris. And also they had attempted to sort of, you know, zhuzh it up sort of intellectually. So there was like an HG Wells kind of, right. It's like, okay. I mean, you know, HG Wells, that great 90s IP, you know, 1890s. It's the only place I've ever been when a Rennie Dicard roller coaster. The Universal one in Hollywood,

so I'll tell you something interesting about that. Is what firstly, so- I've never been to that one. It's really fun. I would love it. That's where they're opening the Fast and Furious roller coaster next year. They're having a Fast and Furious roller coaster.

Okay, well that's the perfect time for me to visit. But there's loads of things there and you can tell what IP is working. Like years ago there was a Battlestar Galactica and then that got replaced by Back to the Future and then Back to the Future was replaced by The Simpsons. The Terminator zone became Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. And they're never leaving, let me tell you. Spider-Man got replaced by Fear Factor.

Oh dear. We used to make Fear Factor in the UK and I remember watching the American host and thinking, oh you're quite good. And it was Joe Rogan. I saw that. I sort of see that. But the American one, the original consultant when they really massively built it up was Spielberg. So they talked to Spielberg and you know because of his creative imagination and also because of a lot of his IP. If by the way you ever go on the tram ride through the Universal Studios and there's a Jaws exhibit, is it still there? Jaws exhibit? And so everyone's watching that. And if instead of watching that you look at the other side of the tram, that's Spielberg's studio, that's Spielberg's offices in a really, really cool building there. And he says it's literally couldn't be more in the centre of the park. But he said, no one ever, ever looks at my

offices because they're all looking at the- I put a bloody great shot coming out of the woods, right opposite. Clever, isn't it? Wow. He just understands drawing the eye. Yeah, doesn't he just? But when he did the deal to be that consultant, he is still on 2% of all theme park revenue in Florida, Singapore and Japan. Does that include churros? Because if it does...

It includes concessions, yeah, which are the food places and things like that. So he is on that. It's worth about 50 million a year to him. And so they recently tried to buy him out and give him a lifetime deal. And they think the deal that he would have to do to sell them that right would be $1 billion for his stake in the Universal theme parks. That's not bad going, is it? Can I just say well done Bedfordshire one more time? Yeah. Well done. But also because Spielberg's movies have to go to universal. It means we get a Thursday murder club

ride at Bedfordshire. It'd be perfect wouldn't it? Oh my god, I would love a Thursday murder club ride. Which is quite sedate. You know, absolutely. I like the slow ones. Yeah, it's essentially the teacups ride, but it's just teacups filled with tea. What's the opposite of fast and furious? Slow and agreeable. But I do, Jenny, like you said at the start, it's pretty impressive. I'm sure people who live nearby would have a different view on this. No, no, they've done, they've consulted with residents and local businesses all the way through. That's why they've been absolutely meticulous about trying to do this for a long time and that's why it's been approved.

And lots and lots of people are very, very happy about what it will bring to an area that needs this. We are full of good news this week. I am. Which is rather lovely, isn't it? So yeah, that's opening 2031, they reckon. Well, currently. Have you got any recommendations? Yes, I'm absolutely talking of the Universal Studios tour, the studio on Apple, which is the

Seth Rogen show where he plays the head of a studio. The first four episodes, I think, have dropped. If you like movies, genuinely, I think it's magnificent. Yeah, absolutely. It is so good. When we talk about cinema being in disrepair and it being difficult, you think, but of course, because every week there's an extraordinary piece of television coming out. Yeah. Every week we've got the thing, we used to have films. Now, if you can watch something like the studio every week, it's no wonder people don't go to films now, if you want something like the studio every week, well, I mean, it's no wonder people don't go to the cinema, unless you put TV

in the cinema. It's really funny. It's sort of quite stressful in some ways. And it's cute because he's a studio boss, who, and his Seth Rogen and his boss is Brian Cranston, who is all about the bottom line. But Seth Rogen and his boss is Brian Cranston who is all about the bottom line. But Seth Rogen really came into movies because he's a cineast and he loves films and what he really wants to do is turn the studio into something that makes proper old fashion films and he is- And as he says, now I ruin them. Yes, exactly. Without any spoilers, he is thwarted in that ambition.

At every turn. I think it's really, really, really great, especially, you know, lots of people who listen to this are movie fans. If you're a movie fan, you will love this, I think. Speaking of movie fans, we have got a very special, I think, double episode of our members bonus episodes coming up, which is about the island of Dr. Morrow, one of the most troubled productions of all time and the whole story behind that. Which is absolutely crazy. It's unbelievable. The first part of that will come out on Friday. So if you want to sign up it's therestisentertainment.com.

Otherwise we have our questions and answers edition on Thursday. The rest is entertainment at goalhanger.com. Please send us your great questions. And I think that is about us for the day. Yeah, that was loads of fun. That was so much fun. See you on Thursday. See you on Thursday. Well that wraps up another episode of The Rest Is Entertainment brought to you by our

friends at Sky. Now, what have you got on your must watch list at the moment, Richard? At the moment, the white lotus enjoying the latest season of that. Oh, it's such a treat. Oh my God, it's incredible. It's so good. A dark treat. A dark treat.

The visuals are really great and with your Skyglass TV you'll be able to enjoy it all in its 4K glory. And also the built-in sound bar means you can also listen to it in its full whatever the sound version of 4k glory is but it sounds immense I'll say that. It is indeed it brings everything to life and it really gives that cinema experience at home. It feels like Jason Isaacs is in your house like sometimes I go downstairs I'm like Jason Isaacs come on man.

Cups a please. But he's not there. No. But for our listeners who want to experience this with Skyglass 2 visit sky.com to find out more.