Tuesdays from October 4th, 10pm,
Dave
Episode one now available on UKTV Play.
Our fave show of the last 18 months or so returns for a third series, although seeing as this was filmed back to back with series two, perhaps we should refer to it as series 2a.
Trying to prove they’re the best at Things so they can lift the Taskmaster trophy this time round are comedians Rob Beckett, Al Murray, Sara Pascoe, Dave Gorman and Paul Chowdry. An abundance of testosterone and facial hair but who has what it takes to complete the Taskmaster’s challenges?
We can’t ignore the first episode is going out a week before TV broadcast, we will bump this post back up next Tuesday and you should feel free to discuss this in this thread the meantime. Non-Taskmaster stuff should go on the post beneath. If you haven’t watched it yet, don’t come in if you don’t want to be spoiled.
No spoilers but it feels like the comedians have watched the previous two series even though that’s impossible. And one person has yet to come to the party. But glad to have it back.
I wouldn’t worry about spoilers within reason, I hope the post implies caveat empor enough.
Really good start I thought, laughed several times, Rob Beckett good value. Paul Chowdry evidently cast in Joe Wilkinson mode. Peagate not as good as Potatogate obv, first proper task nicely Now Get Out Of That-esque. Also: Snowmen (I thought Rob was a bit robbed here personally).
I didn’t find this one as funny as the other two series so far. It think it is to do with the fact though that i don’t really like al murray and I don’t know who Paul Chowdry is (whereas i knew everyone in S1&2).
Full of win, as expected. On my must-watch list again.
A question I don’t think I’ve seen asked: How is each series assembled for air? Do the contestants play a giant gob o’ tasks all at once, possibly more than are needed for the series, and then are they rearranged and divided into individual episodes after the fact? Or do the producers decide in advance (without knowing the outcome) which three tasks will be in episode 1, and so forth? And are there some tasks that just bomb so completely in execution (or that get mired in judging controversy) that they never make it to air?
I can’t say for sure but I expect they film all of the tasks, know the outcome and then piece them all together depending on what is the most entertaining. At the end of the day they’re not playing for anything serious so it doesn’t matter if there’s a producer’s hand involved. I’ve also got no doubt that there are plenty of challenges they drop for not being good enough.
Yes this would be my guess as well. Davies makes ultimate judgements on the night though, although I’m sure the hosts are well aware of the films they’re building up to.
Also, just found this from last month: Taskmaster “Live” at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKmKharkSzc
http://www.thetvfestival.com/?post_type=programme-item&p=7649
“In Taskmaster, Dave’s breakout entertainment hit by Avalon Television, Greg Davies and Alex Horne put an ensemble of five comedians through a series of tasks… Now, at the Edinburgh TV Festival it’s the turn of five hyper-competitive TV execs – whose wiles, wit and wisdom will be put to the ultimate test all for an unforgettable, one-off special.
*UKTV would like to thank Greg Davies, Alex Horne, Andy Devonshire, Andy Cartwright and the whole team at Avalon as well as all the execs for being such good sports and fantastic competitors.”
Ah! Will watch that tonight. Thanks!
Actually, to tie this to my earlier question, this “episode” contains a good example of what happens when a task bombs so badly that it’s not airworthy. I won’t spoil it further.
But for an industry-only presentation, this “episode” is very well produced, almost on par with an actual episode. It also shows that the format basically works even when the players aren’t well known.
I have watched this “episode” yesterday and basically agree with you, but I don’t know which task you are referring to. Do you mean the last one before the stage task? Because I felt it was boring.
2 more series of Taskmaster coming in 2017! Are there actually 10 more comedians left in Britain? We shall see.
Great news!
It strikes me that after two more series they’ll have five winners. I wonder if they might make use of that in some sort of Champion’s episode?
It’d fit quite nicely for a Christmas special, except I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dave actually do one of those.
The closest they’ve ever got to a Christmas special was a celebrity edition of Storage Hunters UK on Christmas Day. Still, there’s a first for everything…
It seems Dave are doing more Celebrity Storage Hunters UK – if you like that type of thing.
I really enjoyed this, it made me cry with laughter. Rob Beckett rolling in goose shit and retching was fantastic, and I loved Greg and Alex’s reaction.
I also like how Sara Pascoe (whose plaiting was amazing) is following the lead of Tim Key by wearing an all-purpose ready-for-anything outfit throughout.
This got off to a great start last night, 420k (exc +1) I’ve read.
Great stuff. Dave have really hit a rich seam recently. I hope they continue to do quirky-but-popular stuff.
I would certainly agree with that – their panel shows are genuinely innovative and certainly a better showcase for comedians than the umpteenth Have I Got X For You variant. It was really telling a few years back when C4 were doing things like The Mad Bad Ad Show and A Brief History Of Everything Else, the most contrived formats imaginable, and Dave were doing School of Hard Sums, a show about maths!
With Go 8 Bit, As Yet Untitled and this, they really do have an excellent line-up of original concepts that allow the participants to be creative and spontaneous to great effect.
This is basically why I think if The Genius has a natural home on UK TV, it’s Dave.
I really enjoyed it!
Episode two was super, especially enjoyed the escape room-esque task. Dave’s surprise would have been close to my tactic. My tactic for the balloons would have been similar to Al’s, would also like to think I spotted the Morse although wouldn’t have been able to decode.
Yes, this was great. Even though the escape room was quite an obvious thing to do, there was still a lot of fun elements built into it. I just wished they put the Morse reveal much later rather than almost the first clip.
I’m inclined to believe they’d have been inclined to edit it differently if people had actually done anything with the Morse Code nature of the balloons.
Very impressed with this series, albeit only after two episodes. I hadn’t known Al Murray at all outside his Pub Landlord character, but he’s really got into the spirit of it. Similarly, I previously had the impression that Rob Beckett was a Joe Wilkinson-style slacker comedian, but he too is actually very good; more grist to the “it takes a smart person to play dumb” mill. Sara is a very pleasant surprise and really into it. Dave Gorman, who I normally have a lot of time for, has been very slightly disappointing so far by playing everything with the straightest of bats, but there’s still time.
Anyone want to do fantasy casting for series 4/5? Noting Matt’s comment below about dealing with the gender imbalance, it is possible to start to observe tropes in the line-ups to date and wonder whether they’re more than mere coincidence.
Well, a dream panel would definitely contain David Mitchell and Paul Sinha. A nice addition would be Sue Perkins and Jo Brand and if they have Mark Watson on, they would have all three of the We Need Answers cast on the show. Failing that, Dara O’Braiain would be brilliant.
In tandem with some of Arun Uttamchandani’s ideas:
Series 4:-
Sue Perkins
Paul Sinha
Marcus Brigstocke
Rufus Hound
Josie Long
Series 5:-
Mark Watson
Holly Walsh
Susan Calman
Bill Bailey
Isy Suttie
Ooh! I do love a fantasy line-up! Here’s my two!
Jo Brand
Sean Lock
James Acaster
Diane Morgan
Elis James
Aisling Bea
Joe Lycett
Rhod Gilbert
Sue Perkins
Paul Sinha
My theory is that the panel so far has been, typically:
An old stager (Skinner / Osman / Murray)
A geek (Key / Richardson / Gorman)
A hip young thing (Widdicombe / Wilkinson / Beckett)
A BME man (Ranganathan / Brown / Chowdhry)
A woman (Conaty / Ryan / Pascoe)
There may be a little more forcing of square pegs into round holes in season two of that description than the others – and, just because that’s the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean that it’s the way it has to be, especially in terms of gender imbalance. Some of the suggestions above are great: Josie Long would be fantastic in the geek box, and I would love to see Paul Sinha bring the quick wit he demonstrates on Fighting Talk to prove his smarts as well as his knowledge. Bill Bailey is a great shout for an old stager, but I’d also like to see Paul Merton as well; they both have such improv backgrounds that I’d love to see them apply that to the challenges. I don’t know whether Ross Noble would be brilliant, awful or both but I’d like to find out. (Some day – around series ten or so – I’d like to see them pull off the Chantelle stunt from Big Brother and have an ordinary member of the public among the celebrities.)
This, like The Crystal Maze, is a show where the games are the star. With short series of five or six episodes, it takes care not to outstay its welcome. I hope it can run and run.
(Or we can have fun playing the theoretical all-world version: Sangmin, Stefan Raab, Barack Obama, Petra Mede and Ellen Degeneres…)
Sangmin V. Dongmin in their deathmatch: “Eat this egg, fastest wins”
Let’s shoe-horn, potentially offensively, in the series four line-up:
An old stager (Skinner / Osman / Murray / Dennis)
A geek (Key / Richardson / Gorman / Lycett)
A hip young thing (Widdicombe / Wilkinson / Beckett / Fielding)
A BME man (Ranganathan / Brown / Chowdhry / Adefope)
A woman (Conaty / Ryan / Pascoe / Giedroyc)
The potential is immense on this one. I don’t know Lolly Adefope at all, but I’ve hardly known other players in the past and they’ve turned out to be tremendous. (Or Paul Chowdhry.)
For amusement only, I’ll start the book at:
Joe Lycett 2/1
Hugh Dennis 11/4
Mel Giedroyc 7/2
Noel Fielding 9/2
Lolly Adefope 6/1
Convoluted finish where Greg keeps the trophy for himself 28/1
I look forward to Lolly, in particular, proving me wrong. One obvious question is how they pick teams for the team events. Do they go old-school boys vs. girls?
I thoroughly enjoyed series three. Rob Beckett and Sara Pascoe were extremely pleasant surprises and I’m now favourably disposed to seeing them again in other shows. (I didn’t know Al Murray at all outside his Pub Landlord character, but he and Dave Gorman were good value too.)
Dave was surprisingly straight-batted in his approach to the tasks, and his only special skill appeared to be that of outright cheating.
I thought Lolly Adefope was a woman.
You’re quite correct, hence the reference to shoe-horning and potential offence. I’m very pleased that more diverse casting has broken my model.
Here’s another model, which may or may not be a better fit:
An old stager (Skinner / Osman / Murray / Dennis)
A geek (Key / Richardson / Gorman / Lycett)
An up-and-comer (Widdicombe / Brown / Beckett / Adefope)
A woman (Conaty / Ryan / Pascoe / Giedroyc)
A slacker (Ranganathan / Wilkinson / Chowdhry / Fielding)
In broader Taskmaster news, I’d missed that Alex acknowledged the gender imbalance issue on Twitter when 4 and 5 were announced, and has promised that the upcoming series will have more than one female participant.
Another great episode. Domino Rally!
E5 Live task “Doughnuts on a Stick”, together with 8OU10C’s “Carrot in a Box” goes on my list of “Food related The Genius games, that somehow ended up on a comedy show and were unbelievably tense”.