Weirdly wonderful
THERE seem to be two sets of TV viewers, when it comes to Taskmaster.
The ones who haven’t watched it (maybe they don’t look that far down the listings, or they read about it and thought its sounded weird) and the ones who absolutely love it.
We’re firmly in the second camp – and there’s clearly plenty like us, as this UKTV original series is back for its seventh run.
It can be a tricky one to describe – it’s a bunch of comedians competing against each other in a series of very random and usually meaningless challenges, presided over by Taskmaster Greg Davies, who gives out the (often arbitrary) points, assisted by Alex Horne. It’s kind of like what you’d get if The Generation Game had a baby with 8 Out of 10 Cats. Ish. The five brave souls taking part in this run are Rhod Gilbert, James Acaster, Kerry Godliman, Jessica Knappett and Phil Wang. There might well be a couple of names you don’t instantly recognise, but they’re guaranteed to be funny – just in their own right, and even more so if they’re trying to eat watermelon very quickly, impress a mayor or complete an obstacle course with someone in a wheelie bin (all actual previous tasks). There’s a brilliant mix of camaraderie and competitiveness between them. Greg makes an excellent usually nonbenevolent dictator and little Alex is the most sporting of sidekicks – even when Rhod is whipping off his bikini bottoms. We know it sounds weird, but trust us: it’s hilarious.