Task at hand
Comedian Lee Mack is preparing to take on the Taskmaster. Marion McMullen learns the Not Going Out star’s only goal is not to finish last
GET ready for more mayhem and fiendish challenges as Taskmaster returns. Would I Lie To You team captain Lee Mack is joining Charlotte Ritchie of BBC sitcom Ghosts, and fellow comedy performers Jamali Maddix, Mike Wozniak and Sarah Kendall for the chance to win a bust of Taskmaster Greg Davies sprayed with gold paint. Lee, 52, has known Greg for years, but says it did not help him when it came to tackling the tasks.
Have you always been a fan of Taskmaster?
It’s my children’s favourite show. It’s endlessly on our TV. I’ve been asked to do it before and haven’t been able to for a combination of reasons, but the kids begged me to do it. My son’s turning 16 this year so I have to do it while he’s still officially a child. It’s a big thing in our house, we play the board game all the time and they make up their own Taskmaster games.
They’re showing a level of interest in my career that they’ve never shown before.
Did that pressure from you kids make you very competitive?
Definitely. They don’t want me to come last. That’s all they want. They’ll see second-to-last as a massive victory, so I turned up not caring about anything beyond not coming last – if the kids are happy then I’m happy. But it’s amazing how much you start to care about whether or not you’re the best at finding out how many sides a piece of jelly has with your tongue. That’s what this show does to you.
Did you offer anything precious
for any of the challenges?
I did offer my children up. Taskmaster has turned them into little monsters who get flour all over the house so I said, ‘Well you’ve ruined them so you can have them’. But nobody wanted them.
Have you discovered anything about yourself?
I’ve discovered that I’m slightly more competitive than I thought – and that I’m older than the others.
You’d think that wouldn’t be a discovery but in your head you think you’re the same age as these people and then you see it on screen and it’s very much the case of, ‘Oh no, I am considerably older than everybody.’
Which sort of tasks were you best and worst at?
The ones I tended to do alright in were the ones that didn’t require any physical exertion. The ones I was bad at were the tasks that required remembering things.
There was a particular one where memory was important – just forget it. I barely remembered to bring my clothes to Taskmaster.
Would you say Taskmaster differs from other panel shows?
Yeah, it’s different in that you get to do the tasks so you’re not just turning up to the studio on the night, you’re turning up way before, to a house in the middle of nowhere and completing tasks.
Also you’re not interacting with other comics for those tasks, you’re on your own. On other shows there’s the pretence sometimes of a game or an idea when actually it’s an excuse to just tell jokes, but this really is about the task.
I’m a middle-aged man who gets bewildered sometimes.
Lee Mack
Did you go in with any kind of strategy when it came to being funny or doing the task well?
I’d like to pretend I gave it a second thought but when I walked through the door it was like, ‘Here’s your first task’ and then I just did it. If a man isn’t turning up with his clothes you can’t expect much more. I’m a middle-aged man who gets bewildered sometimes.
Did knowing Taskmaster Greg Davies give you any kind of advantage?
No, I don’t think so.
BELOW L-R: Charlotte Ritchie, Jamali Maddix, Gregg Davies, Mike Wozniak, Alex Horne, Sarah Kendall and Lee will battle it out in a series of bizarre challenges
I think the more you know him, the more he’s willing to abuse you.
He’s on safe territory abusing someone he knows well and also we’re virtually the same age so he knows what it’s like to be old and he used that against me rather than for me.
Was co-presenter Alex Horne helpful or a hindrance?
He can be helpful if you ask him but you have to say ‘please’. He doesn’t like it if you don’t, basic manners, but when you’re hanging off a tree by a thread that could snap at any minute you forget your manners slightly. He can be very helpful when he decides to be and very irritating when he decides to be.
How would you describe Greg and Alex’s relationship?
It’s borderline abusive and you can get rid of the word ‘borderline.’ It’s an interesting dynamic. There’s a lot of sexual tension. There’s something bubbling away that comes out as abuse.
How did you get on with your fellow contestants?
Sarah (Kendall) and I came from the comedy world during a similar era, so we first met in Australia back in the late 1990s.
We were reminiscing about that the other day. Our paths have crossed over the years with various stand-up things but I haven’t done a lot of TV with her.
Like me, she’s currently busy scripting her own stuff now so I’m not sure how much stand-up she does anymore, but I’m certainly doing a lot less than I used to.
I didn’t know any of the others.
I was a fan of Charlotte (Ritchie) because I like Ghosts.
How would you sum up Taskmaster for people who haven’t watched it before? It’s an hour of insanity.
■ Taskmaster starts on Channel 4, Thursday, 9pm