Marcus Mumford crashes Carey Mulligan’s SNL hosting gig

Carey Mulligan was joined by singer husband Marcus Mumford during her hosting slot on US sketch show Saturday Night Live.

Mulligan, Oscar-nominated for her lead role in Promising Young Woman, made her debut on the long-running comedy series.

In her opening monologue, she joked she was the “first English person to ever host this show,” a nod to the heavy British presence in recent episodes.

Next came a gag about her alleged likeness to US actress Michelle Williams, before Mulligan, 35, discussed family life in lockdown.

She said: “I spent the last year quarantining in the English countryside with my husband and my two small children. Which is the beginning of most horror movies.

“So it’s very exciting to be somewhere where shops are open.”

That was a reference to the more relaxed lockdown in New York, where SNL is filmed.

Mulligan was soon joined by her Mumford & Sons frontman husband, who has been a musical guest on the show three times.

She feigned surprise at his arrival and the 34-year-old joked he left their children in the care of “the Sons”.

Mumford, Mulligan’s husband of nine years, pulled out an acoustic guitar and volunteered to be this week’s musical guest, a slot already occupied by rapper Kid Cudi.

Mulligan’s first sketch featured her playing a comically inept contestant on the fictional gameshow What’s Wrong With This Picture.

Another was a send up of US medical commercials, with Mulligan playing a mother suffering from irritable bowel syndrome.

Mulligan almost broke character for a sketch opposite SNL star Kate McKinnon.

The pair played students about to share a kiss in a bedroom, with Mulligan struggling not to break into laughter while McKinnon’s character was taking romantic advice over the phone.

In Lesbian Period Film, a parody of recent movies Ammonite and Portrait Of  A Lady On Fire, Mulligan starred opposite SNL star Heidi Gardner as lovers in the 19th century.

Kid Cudi performed the songs Tequila Shots and Sad People.

SNL’s traditional cold open sketch featured a local news station in Minnesota discussing the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering unarmed black man George Floyd.

SNL stars Ego Nwodim and Keenan Thompson, who are black, played presenters sharing their doubts Mr Floyd’s family would receive justice.

There was also a reference to the Duke of Edinburgh.

McKinnon’s newsreader said the world had “lost royalty,” and her black colleagues assumed she meant the revered rapper DMX, who also died on Friday.