Taskmaster

Revision as of 09:40, 13 September 2020

Host

Greg Davies

Co-hosts

Umpire: Alex Horne

Broadcast

Avalon Television for Dave, 28 July 2015 to 6 November 2019 (72 episodes in 9 series + 2 specials)

Avalon Television for Channel 4, 2020

Synopsis

Comedians are given very strange things to do.

Alex Horne's mind is a strange place. All of the usual elements are there, but they're all mixed up. He makes hot toothpaste pies. He plays golf with hen's eggs. He draws horses while riding horses.

But a problem shared is a problem halved, so Horne has invited some comedy friends to perform these surreal dreams. Greg Davies hosts the programme, ranks the performances, and the best player over the programme (and over the series) is the winner.

The players from Series 1: Ranganathan, Skinner, Conaty, Widdicombe, Key (seated) Davies and Horne

Taskmaster is theatre of the absurd, sensible people doing insensible things. The atmosphere was heightened by the filming location - almost all the tasks took place in a hired cottage, decorated as a shrine to the Taskmaster. There was no narration over the films, just the natural sound of the players talking.

Fans of bizarre television flocked to this show, and it gained audience as the first series went on, and as each subsequent series aired. Taskmaster turned into a massive hit for Dave, their first since Argumental about five years earlier. After five years, during which the format was honed to perfection, UKTV's contract expired and the show went up for new bids. Channel 4 bought the rights; we'll have to see what Taskmaster is like on its new home.

Key moments

The blatant I'm-only-doing-this-because-the-recommission-of-my-show-depends-on-it apathy of Dave Gorman's performance.

Any episode where a participant is subjected to extra punishment, such as Josh Widdicombe being asked to count the numbers of beans, spaghetti hoops and grains of rice in their respective containers or Rob Beckett being asked to spend a task talking in an accent other than his own.

Nish Kumar getting fed up with one of the live tasks and throwing a coconut at the Taskmaster's head and promptly being disqualified. Mind you, the highlight of that series was Bob Mortimer, Aisling Bea and Sally Phillips' less than affectionate tribute to an unwitting victim called Rosalind…

Rhod Gilbert using his prize tasks to embarrass Davies, especially when he gets Greg's mother involved.

Catchphrases

"All the information's on the task."

Champions

2015	Josh Widdicombe
Summer 2016	Katherine Ryan
Autumn 2016	Rob Beckett
Spring 2017	Noel Fielding
Autumn 2017	Bob Mortimer
Spring 2018	Liza Tarbuck
Autumn 2018	Kerry Godliman
Spring 2019	Lou Sanders
Autumn 2019	Ed Gamble

Champion of Champions

2017	Josh Widdicombe

Participants

2015

2016 (Summer series)

2016 (Autumn series)

2017 (Spring series)

2017 (Autumn series)

Aisling Bea
Bob Mortimer
Mark Watson
Nish Kumar
Sally Phillips

Champion of Champions

Josh Widdicombe
Katherine Ryan
Rob Beckett
Noel Fielding
Bob Mortimer

2018 (Spring series)

Asim Chaudhry
Russell Howard
Alice Levine
Liza Tarbuck
Tim Vine

2018 (Autumn series)

James Acaster
Rhod Gilbert
Kerry Godliman
Jessica Knappett
Phil Wang

2019 (Spring series)

Sian Gibson
Lou Sanders
Paul Sinha
Iain Stirling
Joe Thomas

2019 (Autumn series)

David Baddiel
Jo Brand
Ed Gamble
Rose Matafeo
Katy Wix

2020

Daisy May Cooper
Johnny Vegas
Katherine Parkinson
Mawaan Rizwan
Richard Herring

Inventor

Alex Horne, who also wrote and produced the show.

Title music

The Horne Section.

Incidental music by Dru Masters.

Trivia

Based on a stage show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010 and 2011.

In early series, judgement was pronounced at the Clapham Grand theatre. Later series used a proper studio set.

Series 1 participant Tim Key was retained for future series as a Task Consultant.

Pre-watershed editions were made of each episode, which wasn't too much trouble for the most part. However one of Alice Levine's task attempts had to be so badly censored they had to add a line to explain just how much had been taken out. Way to spoil the illusion.

The barely concealed look of glee on Horne's face after successfully predicting that someone, namely Ed Gamble, would answer the task 'Say a letter of the alphabet' with 'a letter of the alphabet'.

Just as they had done with Penn & Teller: Fool Us, The CW bought the eighth series in 2020 with a view to producing a remake. It lasted one episode before being hauled on to CW Seed and replaced by Supernatural reruns.

Web links

Dave webpage

Wikipedia entry

British Comedy Guide entry

Feedback

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 Any episode where a participant is subjected to extra punishment, such as [[Josh Widdicombe]] being asked to count the numbers of beans, spaghetti hoops and grains of rice in their respective containers or [[Rob Beckett]] being asked to spend a task talking in an accent other than his own.
+[[Nish Kumar]] getting fed up with one of the live tasks and throwing a coconut at the Taskmaster's head and promptly being disqualified. Mind you, the highlight of that series was [[Bob Mortimer]], [[Aisling Bea]] and Sally Phillips' less than affectionate tribute to an unwitting victim called Rosalind&hellip;
 [[Rhod Gilbert]] using his prize tasks to embarrass Davies, especially when he gets Greg's mother involved.