How comic Greg Davies became an unlikely 6ft 8in sex symbol

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then many beholders of Greg Davies probably have a collective crook in the neck. The comedian, all 6ft 8in of him, is a hunk, and all of us are – in a literal sense – looking up at him adoringly.

The Taskmaster host has added an unlikely string to his bow: that of heart-throb and sex symbol. The same comic who once admitted “I’m a middle-aged man with a belly, and a lot of mirrors in my flat to remind me of that” now possesses a level of magnetism that Tom Cruise would, possibly, kill for.

“I find Greg unbelievably magnetic,” says fellow comedian Mae Martin. “I don’t know what it is. I’ve met so many people doing comedy, and I’ve never been more starstruck. I think I just fancy him.”

Davies, 55, whose first hits were The Inbetweeners (2008) and Man Down (2013) staged his televisual coup d’état with Taskmaster, the Channel 4 show that requires panellists to complete silly challenges, which he developed with Alex Horne. Originally screened on Dave, it is now one of the most popular shows in the country.

Davies is the notionally foreboding host, filling out every inch of the throne upon which he sits, but who all too frequently cracks up, incapable of keeping the glint from his eye. This glint has not gone unnoticed.

“Genuinely only recently I developed a massive crush on the Taskmaster himself and have consequently watched every TV show he is in, all the interviews, all his guest appearances,” wrote one social media user. A YouTube showreel entitled “Greg Davies being flagrantly bi for nine minutes”, which features him camping it up with a variety of comedy co-stars, has had more than 800,000 views. One comment reads: “My own bisexuality intensifies every time Greg smiles.”

Much of his appeal revolves around that aforementioned vulnerability, which he does not feel moved to conceal. “I do seem to have the ability of pretending I know what I’m doing, that I’m in control,” he said in 2020. “But as any of my close friends will tell you, that is so far from the truth. In real life, I’m freewheeling, my fingernails scraping, just barely holding on.”

You would never get such humility from Tom Cruise.