Silly season
STEVE PEMBERTON, SOPHIE WILLAN AND JOHN ROBINS ARE ALL SET FOR THE BONKERS CONTEST’S 17th SERIES…
TASKMASTER Channel 4 9PM
Hi, all! Why did you want to be on Taskmaster? John Everyone does! I was just waiting for the stars to align. Sophie I watched the first series and fell in love with it. There’s not many shows where you can just be yourself instead of worrying about making a wise joke, so it suits my intellect. Steve I don’t like doing a lot of things as myself. The turning point for me was when my good friend Katherine Parkinson did it. She said, “If they ever ask you, you must do it.” So I watched her series go out, and I thought, “Yeah, that looks terrific!”
What goes through your mind when you first read a task? Sophie Mainly panic. When I was actually doing the tasks I thought I was doing really well
– but video evidence quickly squashed my delusions of grandeur! Steve A bit of everything, really. There were tasks where I panicked and should have taken a bit more time. John My motto was to think every task is a trap, but that every trap is an opportunity. So give yourself 30 seconds to just think.
Did any of you try to get extra points from Greg? Steve A bit. I’ve had some disqualifications which I’ve tried pitifully to have rescinded, but once Greg’s made his mind up there’s not a lot you can do. I did give him a few pleading looks.
John I tried every angle: sympathy, flattery, bribery. But you can’t push it for too long because he’s wise to it. In 17 series, he’s had every tactic thrown at him!
And did you find Alex a help or a hindrance? Steve Really helpful. I got him involved in a lot of my tasks. But he does keep saying, “All the information is on the task”, and at one point I did snap! Sophie Well, he left me to drown in a river, so… I got stuck in some kind of bog and screamed, “I’m going down!”, and he just stood there with his clipboard. He’s ruthless!