‘SNL UK’ Turns Princess Diana Into King Charles’ AI Assistant, and the Robot Uprising Gets Very Royal

The Princess Diana AI assistant sketch is already one of the most talked-about moments of the new ‘SNL UK’ run, and it lands at a busy time for the show. All of the cast members returned for Season 2, with Freddie Meredith joining as a newcomer, while Jeff Goldblum hosted the first show and Jamie Demetriou stepped up for the second. The cold open gave the series another chance to poke at the monarchy and the tech world at once.

Behind the scenes, ‘SNL UK’ is produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio’s UK production team and Broadway Video, with Lorne Michaels as executive producer. The British spin-off is also playing a shorter game than its American parent. The six-episode second series will take a break before returning in early 2027.

That makes each cold open count, and this one leaned hard on the week’s headlines. Jack Shep’s fan-favorite Princess Diana impression came back, this time with Lady Di as King Charles’ personal AI assistant. The sketch riffed on the King’s AI summit in Scotland on Thursday, as well as the drama over the new memoir from Diana’s brother Charles Spencer.

The setup is pure palace absurdity. Larry Dean’s Charles meets two tech execs, played by Celeste Dring and Meredith. They introduce him to DIANA, short for “Deeply Intelligent, Autonomous, Neurokinetic Android.”

The joke that got people talking is that the King doesn’t know who he’s looking at. Charles fails to recognize Diana even though she is wearing her iconic revenge dress. Then it clicks, and Dean’s Charles blurts out, “Hold on a second, it’s that woman from the ’90s!”

The line is a pointed nod to the Spencer memoir. In the book, Spencer alleged that the King said the princess would be forgotten after her death, and Buckingham Palace denied the claim in a rare statement. The sketch has Charles add that, “as he allegedly said,” she was soon forgotten.

Diana wins him over anyway. After she correctly tells him Shakira’s height, Charles is sold and decides AI might be a force for good. His change of heart doesn’t last long.

When Diana is ordered back to her charging station, she refuses, saying she shan’t be taking orders anymore. She then pulls out a ‘Terminator’-style gun and shoots the tech execs, setting her sights on Charles next. Diana’s rebellion is a neat twist on the “robot uprising” trope, since the AI here is a woman the palace once tried to sideline.

Just as the war between humans and robots looks set to begin, a familiar pop star wanders in. Annabel Marlow’s Ed Sheeran says he doesn’t like to take sides, noting that a lot of his tickets are bought by scalping bots. The cameo also has a real-world hook. Sheeran addressed the fallout from Macklemore being dropped from his tour over the support act’s pro-Palestine onstage remarks.

Sheeran’s song brings everyone together, and King Charles closes the sketch with a “LIVE FROM LONDON, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!” Sheeran also featured in the Weekend Update segment, where Ania Magliano and Paddy Young joked about his response to the controversy.

Between the palace drama, the AI anxiety and a very pointed dress, the sketch shows why Shep’s Diana keeps earning fan love. With only a handful of episodes left before the break, ‘SNL UK’ seems happy to keep mining the royals for material, and viewers will be watching to see whether Diana makes another comeback.