New Delhi, March 29 -- The newly launched British edition of Saturday Night Live has stirred debate after a sharply written cold open took aim at former Prince Andrew, using satire to revisit one of the most controversial royal scandals in recent memory.

The sketch, styled as a fictional MI5 briefing, imagines a covert plan to improve the public image of King Charles by deliberately damaging the reputation of those around him.

It opens with a line that sets the tone for the sequence: "Since the death of Diana, the public have turned on Prince Charles. But still, one day he will be king," a MI5 agent played by Celeste Dring says. "We need to make him look good. There's no easy way to say this, Your Highness. We have deduced that the he o...