TASKMASTER: CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS 2022
Channel 4, 9pm
Aweek after the end of its 13th series, this silly game show delves back into its past on Dave, wrangling the winners of series six to nine (alongside the series 10 champion from its earliest Channel 4 run) for a one-off explosion of its peerless creativity and open-hearted hilarity, punctuated as ever by the grumpily aggressive interventions of the always curmudgeonly Taskmaster Greg Davies, still loving the role he has landed in.
The secrets of the show’s success are twofold. Firstly, there is a chemistry between the competitors that, even for this ad hoc one-off, is as finely balanced and effective as ever: Richard Herring brings self-deprecation and a big chequebook, Lou Sanders roller skates and an obsession with pulleys, Ed Gamble essays a trip into space and an unusual costume, Kerry Godliman supplies bottled fury and James Acaster, while Liza
Tarbuck, quite frankly, steals the show. Secondly there are the baffling tasks themselves, concocted and often participated in by Alex Horne: tonight’s activities feature a duck and a pond, “the greatest thing”, some sleight of hand with bricks and balloons, and elaborate consumption of grapes. To its credit, there remains nothing else like it on television, nor anything as consistently funny and inventive.