The Independent is celebrating the greatest TV moments of the year so far, from the ones that got the nation talking to the scenes that moved us or made us laugh. In a series of articles running this summer, insiders share the part they played in making them happen.

With his inquisitive frown, awkward interview style and seemingly endless collection of blue knitwear, bespectacled documentarian Louis Theroux is certainly up there with the great figures of British TV. So, when Saturday Night Live UK chose to caricature his instantly recognisable mannerisms and phrases (“Is that fair to say? Shall we get started?”), it unsurprisingly chimed with his multi-generational fanbase. It was simply cherry on the cake when the actual Weird Weekends star rocked up and made a cameo.

In the Sky sketch show’s series finale in May, cast member Larry Dean embodied the softly spoken journalist who, after eating “tapas with the Tiger King” and doing “karaoke with the KKK”, took on the ultimate challenge: attempting to interview himself at a Bromsgrove Travelodge. “This is Looking Theroux the Mirror,” Dean announced, as Theroux’s slightly phlegmier doppelganger, before facing a bunch of other stars doing their best Therouxs: SNL UK star Al Nash, that week’s celebrity host Ncuti Gatwa and eventually the man himself.

Having had just five days to put the sketch together before the live sketch on the Saturday, SNL UK star Dean tells The Independent how the sketch came to be, when he knew Theroux would be making a cameo and what it was really like when Louis met Larry.

Coming up with the sketch

“I was chatting with writer Lorna Rose Treen and she asked, ‘What kind of impressions do you think you could do?’ I had never actually done a Louis Theroux impression before but I was trying to do one. On SNL, you have to learn impressions very quickly so I end up practising random impressions throughout the week – I must come across like an absolute nutcase when in between conversations I’ll go, ‘How would Louis Theroux say that? How would King Charles say that?’

“On the US version of the show, they often do sketches where a celebrity is looking in a mirror with a cast member doing an impersonation of them as their reflection – so Lorna said: ‘Right, I’m going to write a Louis Theroux one.’

“Originally when we did it in the readthrough, it wasn’t going to have Louis Theroux definitely in it but we thought, ‘We’ll write him in just so we can see if the show can book him.’ If they couldn’t, the idea was that the whole cast would end up in the Travelodge room, doing the impression.”

Finding the Louis impersonators

“When Lorna and I were running through the sketch, she would be reading the other parts and wondering who else has got a Louis in them. I knew Al [Nash] did a Louis Theroux on stage and he’s a big fan – so we got him in. Then we thought it would be really funny if we added that week’s celebrity host, Ncuti Gatwa, in as well. I asked him on the Wednesday if he could do an impression of him and Ncuti said: ‘I promise I will work on my Louis Theroux.’

“The one thing that was really hard with the impression was that Louis actually never talks to the camera. He usually has a voice over in his documentaries but we couldn’t do that in the middle of a live sketch because if that goes wrong, we’re absolutely done for. So, we came up with a pose that we thought Louis would do – putting one hand on the elbow and the other by the mouth – while we did a voiceover straight to the camera.” ** **

Securing Louis’ cameo

“We found out on Thursday night that Louis was interested and then on Friday, his cameo was confirmed. On SNL UK, the whole show is based on ‘maybe’ – which is what makes it work because everything is so last minute – but I genuinely didn’t think he was actually going to do it. Even on the day he was supposed to come, I felt like I was going to be told, ‘He doesn’t feel well, he’s cancelled,’ or something.

“He came for rehearsals, which was very nice – I didn’t even expect him to do that. I don’t tend to get that nervous for shows but I was terrified for that sketch. We knew it was going to feel really special when they opened the door and everyone saw Louis Theroux.

“On the show, there’s always a risk that a sketch might be cut after the dress rehearsal and so I thought, ‘If Louis comes to do this and they drop it before the live show, he has to go home and this sketch doesn’t go out on TV because of me.’ There was a lot of pressure.”

Meeting Louis

“Louis is absolutely lovely to work with – which was a real relief because when you meet someone you have so much respect for and they’re nice, you go, ‘Oh thank God.’

“I don’t think I’ve ever cringed so much as when we had to read through the sketch with him. It’s so odd having to do an impersonation to the person that you’re impersonating because it does feel like you’re bullying them. There’s a really nice picture of us all actually – it’s the first time we all read it through. I’m laughing while reading the cue card, Louis looks a bit embarrassed and Lorna is looking at Louis like, ‘Is this ok?’

“Louis said that he really liked the sketch and that’s why he said yes. He’s been offered other cameos on shows like this and doesn't usually like doing this stuff. He said that when people impersonate him, he sometimes becomes too self-aware. When myself and Lorna went to Louis’ dressing room to read through the script with him, he hadn’t read the full thing and when he said in the sketch, ‘Is that fair to say?’ he looked up at Lorna and went, ‘Do I say that?’”

The audience’s reaction

“During the dress rehearsal, the audience went wild when they saw Louis come out, and afterwards, Louis asked the boss James [Longman]: ‘When the live audience start cheering, should I talk straight away? I’m not sure about the timing.’ James said: ‘No, Louis. Let the audience go absolutely mad for you.’

“During the live show, it was really nice. People were going absolutely wild for a documentarian. He got treated like a rock star.

“As for SNL’s return in September, it’s very hard to know who you’ll need to learn to impersonate because of the political climate, but Mick Jagger is one that I’ve always wanted to do. He’s been done before on SNL US but I’d love to see an SNL UK version of him.”

*Larry Dean is currently on tour with his stand-up show Hellbent *