Alice Snedden takes us through her life in television, including getting all her news from Flipside, crying to Grey’s Anatomy compilations and appreciating the comedic layers to The Nanny.
She’s been the head writer on Jono and Ben, co-written and directed the BBC smash hit comedy Starstruck, but in 2024 Alice Snedden has bitten off her most ambitious screen project yet: saving the world. Over three seasons of Bad News, the comedian has delved into many thorny topics in Aotearoa –including the murky laws around migrant sex work, the morals of meat eating, and the toxic side of rugby culture – but never, ever, climate change.
“Honestly, mostly because I thought it was just too boring,” she told The Spinoff last month. “The messaging is all death, doom and destruction, which I think people find very hard to engage with.” Going on a quest for answers, and to find out just how bad things really are (spoiler alert: very bad), she is also joined by her frequent collaborator Rose Matafeo to chew through some big anxieties about the end of the world.
“The main function of it is just to be a reminder that the climate crisis is still there, and that just because you aren’t looking at it doesn’t mean it’s gone away,” says Snedden. Watch part one here and part two here, and then read on for a much cheerier journey through Snedden’s life in television, including getting all her news from Flipside, crying to Grey’s Anatomy compilations and appreciating the comedic layers to The Nanny.
My earliest TV memory is… When I was like seven or eight my family went on a trip to stay at my uncle’s timeshare in Noosa and they were doing a Happy Days omnibus. I would run out to the shared compound pool and go for a swim, and then run back in and watch Happy Days. We were pretty restricted with TV apart from when we were on a holiday, so if you got an omnibus of something on holiday that was utter bliss.
The show I would rush home from school to watch was… I really enjoyed Flipside. I have such a vivid memory of feeling quite scholarly watching it, like it was how I was getting all my important news of the day. It was like reading the newspaper, but for children.
My earliest television crush was… A character called Jesse from Home Away, he had a shaved head. My parents still live in the same house I grew up in, and there’s still a sticker of Jesse from Home and Away from a TV Hits magazine on my old bedroom door.
The TV moment that haunts me is… When Denny dies in Grey’s Anatomy, and Izzie is crying on his bed. That was something that stayed with me for so long. Last year I watched a compilation of Denny and Izzie videos leading up to his death and I wept for that man dying. Awful, awful… but very good television.
The ad I can’t stop thinking about is… The ad I always hated the most was the Nutrigrain ad where the guy is rowing and there’s big loud machinery and work noises. But the one I loved for sexy reasons was Carlos Spencer in the robe with the Toffee Pops. Very sexy. And then the one I found the most shocking was the one where the woman is walking through her living room, trips on a piece of Lego (editor’s note: it’s actually a toy truck) and goes through a table. There’s no warning that something like that is going to happen, which I guess that’s why they did them.
My television guilty pleasure is… Vanderpump Rules. I’m obsessed with it. I wasn’t into it until the Scandoval. My friend Emma lives in the UK and loves reality TV, so when the scandal happened we were out drinking one night and she led me through it and I was totally enraptured. So I went and watched the season leading up to that drama, and it was stunning. Then I had to go back and learn the backstories of all these characters, so in the span of about two months, I ended up watching 11 seasons of Vanderpump Rules.
My favourite TV moment of all time is… When Rachel watches Ross’s prom tape in Friends and he’s getting ready to go to prom with her, but then her boyfriend shows up, and she walks over and kisses him at the door. It’s so perfect. Those two just had the best kisses and just the most electric chemistry. He’s the geek, he’s getting the girl, it’s just a perfect evergreen story.
My favourite TV character is… Fran Fine from The Nanny. I reference her all the time, I just think she’s an incredible TV character. She’s so hot, she’s so funny, she’s so insane, and they just got so much out of that premise for so many seasons. She’s so idiosyncratic, and The Nanny is another show that works on so many different levels. I watched it as a kid with my parents, and now when I watch it I’m like “this show is entirely sexual innuendo”.
The funniest television show of all time is… 30 Rock is probably the funniest and has the best joke writing, but the hardest I’ve laughed at a TV show is Parks and Recreation. There’s one episode where Lesley Knope is running for office, so they hire an ice rink for her to give her launch speech, but they don’t have enough red carpet to get out to the podium in the middle of the ice rink. They’re just slipping on the ice, but it just makes me lose it.
My favourite TV project I’ve ever been involved in is… Starstruck for sure. I absolutely loved doing that show, it was really hard but so fulfilling. I really love the scene when they break up in the chapel. Rose [Matafeo] wrote the bulk of that and performed the shit out of that, so full credit to her. Maybe it’s not that exact scene itself, but just being involved in writing something where the people don’t actually end up together felt really satisfying and exciting. We wanted a break-up that felt hopeful and not devastating, so that’s what I’m the most proud of.
The TV project that I wish I had been involved in is… Succession, as a writer. I would have just loved to have been in the room because the content is so meaty. The plotting is so specific but the dialogue is so loose, that to have access to people who are operating at that kind of level would be amazing. I would love to see people that good at their job, doing their job.
My most controversial TV opinion is… The Bear is not a comedy… and I think it’s sometimes cheesy.
A show I will never watch, no matter how people tell me I should is… The Wire. I’ve heard it’s great, but the moment has passed and it’s just not for me. I’ve missed the boat.
The very last thing I watched on television is… The Traitors UK. I’m on episode six of the second season. I loved season one. Rose and I went to some TV awards thing and there was a lot of buzz in the air because Kate Winslet was winning an award for something and she was showing up in person to accept it. But then The Traitors won something and the room just erupted. The love for Claudia Winkleman and that show is so potent. It’s such good reality TV.
Click here to watch part one and two of Alice Snedden’s Bad News Saves the World