Taskmaster (TV series)

Taskmaster was the brainchild of comedian Alex Horne, whose idea was inspired by The Crystal Maze, his work for Big Brother,[3] and his envy of his close friend Tim Key winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2009.[4] The original concept of the programme took place over the course of two years. In 2009, 20 comedians, including Stuart Goldsmith, Josie Long, Mark Watson, Tim Key, Joe Wilkinson and Mike Wozniak,[5] received monthly tasks by email over the course of a year stipulating a variety of tasks.[4][6] Horne then presented their efforts as part of a two-hour show titled The Task Master,[7] at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe which focused on demonstrating the differing attempts by the contestants before revealing who won based on their performances. Mike Wozniak won the first Taskmaster competition.[4] In 2011, Horne conducted another stage show titled Taskmaster II, with ten contestants tackling tasks.[6][8]

Both stage shows proved a success with their audiences, leading Horne to recruit production company Avalon to help produce an adaptation of his concept for television before pitching his idea to several different broadcasters. British television channel Dave took interest in the idea and bought the rights to it, with comedian Greg Davies recruited to help present the programme alongside Horne. However, the channel's Deputy Director of Commissioning at the time, Hilary Rosen, was concerned with the structure of the show. Horne assured Rosen that the programme was not like a traditional panel show but "more like a sitcom", to account for the involvement of the same group of contestants who would appear across a series. Another problem with the format of Horne's concept was that shooting a traditional pilot became implausible,[6] despite studio segments having no issues being tested.[9] One plan for the programme was for Davies to use a cane with a golden "T" on the base, but this was later dropped.[10] The pilot premiered on 19 September 2014,[11] and proved a success with viewers. After the pilot was aired, a series of six episodes was commissioned though intended to be shown in any order. Rosen later determined the show should be arranged in an order, pointing out that "this was a show you record and transmit in the same order".[6] The first series proved a success that led to additional series being commissioned over the course of five years.[12][13] The involvement of comedian Frank Skinner as a contestant in the first series, at Horne's request, also helped to entice other comedians to take part in the programme.[6]

In November 2019, rumours arose that Taskmaster was being moved to another channel; Channel 4 had secured the rights to the programme, renewing it for six series over the course of three years.[14] In March 2023, Channel 4 committed to six more series, airing two series of the programme annually up until at least 2026 (i.e. series 21).[15]

Channel 4 also announced a spin-off called Junior Taskmaster with contestants aged between 9 and 11, consisting of eight episodes[15][2] with 9th series contestant Rose Matafeo as the Taskmaster and 11th series contestant Mike Wozniak as her assistant.[16] Junior Taskmaster follows similar children-oriented spin-off programmes on Channel 4 such as Junior Bake Off and Teen First Dates.[15] Another spin-off of Taskmaster, titled Foodmaster, is centred around food. Former contestant Ed Gamble hosted a non-broadcast pilot in July 2023.[17]

Series 16 premiered on 21 September 2023,[18] while series 17 is set to film in-studio at the end of the same month.[19]

The Taskmaster house, where much of the series is filmed

Taskmaster is a comedic game show, in which a group of five contestants – mainly comedians, but sometimes including other well-known television personalities – compete against each other by completing tasks assigned to them. In each episode, contestants are shown tackling a series of tasks, supervised and sometimes assisted by Horne. Davies then judges each contestant's performance in each task to determine how many points they receive, generally ranking them from one to five points. The contestant with the highest score in each episode wins a collection of prizes submitted by the contestants themselves as one of the tasks; the one with the highest cumulative score at the end of a series wins a trophy. In the main series, the trophy is a golden bust of Davies. These past winners also qualify for future "Champion of Champions" episodes, where the trophy is the golden statue of the rest of Davies' body. A series of "New Year's Treat" episodes featuring celebrities other than comedians has as its trophy a golden statue of Davies' eyebrows.

Tasks given to contestants range from simple physical challenges, such as "eat as much watermelon as you can in one minute", to more complex or artistic tasks. Some tasks may be timed, consist of multiple stages, or both. In some cases, contestants conduct tasks as a team with one or two other contestants; in such cases all members of a team receive the same score. To complete tasks, contestants often have to apply a level of logic, creativity, or lateral thinking in order to achieve the end goal. Contestants can be disqualified and awarded no points for a task if they fail to achieve the task's objective, inadvertently break one of the task's rules, or cheat. Conversely, they can be given bonus points. Occasionally, prank tasks are given to one contestant alone, who is led to believe the others are performing the same task; Davies may award bonus points for these.

Tasks are mostly pre-recorded before an episode's broadcast; the majority are usually conducted in or around the Taskmaster house, a former groundskeepers' cottage located on the outskirts of a golf course in Dukes Meadows, Chiswick.[20][21] Two tasks are usually conducted during studio segments: an introductory Prize task, in which each contestant supplies an object they possess that conforms to a set theme, all of which will be awarded to the winner of the episode; and a final "Live" task, which the contestants perform onstage in the studio. In the event of a tie in the top score at the end of the episode, either a pre-recorded tiebreaker task between the tied contestants is shown, or a quick live task is performed to determine the winner.

Tasks are filmed with each contestant separately in a house in Chiswick, London.[22] However, Alex Horne's initial plan was to carry out the tasks in the comedians' houses, saying in an interview: "I didn't realise how impractical that would be both in terms of cost – and their lives."[6] Filming tasks takes roughly one day per contestant per episode, filming around eight tasks a day, with the days of filming spread out across several months. Before the studio filming, at Pinewood Studios, contestants are forbidden to discuss their tasks and are not shown any footage from the tasks, so that studio reactions are genuine.[22]

Horne designs the tasks to avoid the need for any specialist equipment, so that "people at home [are] able to do the same things".[22] Initially, they planned to have Horne show the right way to complete the task after showing the contestants' attempts, but this was abandoned as "it supposed there was a right way".[9] He also notes that some tasks in the first series involved the general public, but later series avoided this in order to prevent coming across as a "prank show". Some tasks are vetoed by producers for pragmatic reasons, such as "paint the biggest thing red".[22] Others do not turn out as expected, such as "burst all these bubbles [on a massive roll of bubble wrap] – fastest wins", which had been attempted in three different series but not shown in any of them, as "it always ends with people jumping on it for hours".[4]

When asked why he did not present the show, Horne has said that "that was never the plan [...] My role as sidekick is to be sneaky and you can run it from the sides in a really funny way."[6] Horne and Greg Davies had never worked together before Taskmaster;[9] Davies was chosen "because of his authority", Horne says in an interview. He adds that in the pilot, Davies acted as a "dictator figure cross with everyone", but his tone in the show is more relaxed, as "if someone doesn't do something well we really enjoy it so he can be himself".[23]

The series director for Taskmaster is Andy Devonshire, who was previously series director on The Apprentice and the BBC versions of The Great British Bake Off. Peter Orton was director for three episodes in 2016.[24] Production designer James Dillon is responsible for the studio and filming locations as well as the caravan featured from series four onwards,[13] having been past known for designing the original set for The Crystal Maze.[25] The show's theme music was written and performed by The Horne Section, a jazz band led by Horne.[26]

In the studio, other than while attempting the live task, the contestants sit on a row of chairs in alphabetical order of forename from left to right.
Key

•  *  Series champion

• Official website
• Taskmaster at British Comedy Guide
• Taskmaster at UKGameshows.com
• Taskmaster at IMDb 
• Taskmaster at epguides.com
• Taskmaster's channel on YouTube