Trophy hunter

Steve Pemberton tackles Taskmaster’s latest cheeky challenges

NEW ENTERTAINMENT Taskmaster Thursday, 9pm, C4

Five more game comedians subject themselves to the inscrutable whims of Taskmaster ‘Lord’ Greg Davies and his loyal assistant, ‘Little’ Alex Horne (the show’s creator), as Taskmaster begins its 17th series this week on C4.

This time around, the line-up of funny folk consists of standup comics Joanne Mcnally and John Robins, Intelligence star Nick Mohammed (also appearing in Renegade Nell this week – see page 14), Alma’s Not Normal actor Sophie Willan, and Inside No. 9’s Steve Pemberton. But who will win the bust of Davies’ head?

Here, Pemberton, 56, reveals why he decided to accept the challenge…

What made you want to take part in Taskmaster? The turning point for me was when Katherine Parkinson did the show a few years ago. She’s a good friend and she had such fun. I watched her series and thought, ‘Yeah, that looks terrific.’

How intense was the experience of taking part? For some of the filming days, I was also starring in a play [The Pillowman] in London’s West End, so I was doing Taskmaster during the day and the play at night, and I was writing the final series of Inside No. 9 as well. But there’s something about not being able to prepare that was really nice. I loved the anticipation of finding out what was going to be inside that Taskmaster envelope.

Which tasks did you enjoy? On the first filming day, there was one that involved leaping about – I felt like a big kid again and laughed so much. The tasks that were more creative played into my strengths. If we ever had to make a short film or something, I was in my element.

Did you try to argue your case with Greg Davies in the studio? A little bit. I think I was very unlucky for some tasks – I had some disqualifications that I tried pitifully to have rescinded, but once Greg’s made his mind up, there’s not a lot you can do.

Lots of your other work has been quite dark. Did you bring any of that into Taskmaster?

I won’t spoil anything, but I think I disturbed Greg. People have an impression of me from watching my work and I’m not really like that; I’m fairly amiable – but perhaps I’m like the vicar who turns out to be the murderer!

‘I think I disturbed Greg’ STEVE PEMBERTON