Taskmaster UK

Taskmaster is a British comedy panel game show created by the British comedian Alex Horne during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010, and adapted for television in 2015. New episodes premiered on the Dave TV channel between 2015 and 2019, when the show was acquired by Channel 4. The show stars comedian and actor Greg Davies in the title role of the Taskmaster, issuing simple comedic and bizarre tasks to five regular contestants – usually comedians – with Alex Horne acting as assistant to Davies and as umpire during the challenges.

Alternate names

• On Sweden's SVT Play service, this show is titled 'Bäst i test England' (Best in Test England).
• On Denmark's TV2 Play service, it is titled 'Stormester UK' (Grandmaster UK).
• On Finland's MTV Katsomo service, it is titled 'Suurmestari UK' (Grandmaster UK).
• On Croatia's RTL Play service, it is known as 'Direktor Svemira UK' (Director of the Universe UK).
• On Norway's Discovery+ service, this show is titled 'Kongen Befaler UK' (The King Commands UK).

Contestant notes

• The panel consists of five fixed contestants per season.
• Contestants have so far only returned for Champion of Champions specials, to make up numbers in team tasks requiring three members on each team, or as in-studio stand-ins for contestants who are ill.

Team task notes

• Team tasks are completed by uneven teams of two and three contestants.
• In rare circumstances where three members are needed on each team for a task, a former contestant may return to make up the numbers.

Tie-break notes

• Episode ties are broken through tiebreaker tasks, either pre-recorded or live in studio.

Prize notes

• A prize pool is established for each episode from items brought in by contestants for the prize task.
• The prizes are typically presented on screen, though there have been a few occasions where they have been presented on stage.

Awards notes

Taskmaster UK has received the following awards:

• British Academy Television Award, in the category of Best Comedy Entertainment Programme (2020)
• British Comedy Guide Awards, in the category of Best TV Entertainment Show (2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
• British Comedy Guide Award, in the category of Comedy of the Year (2021)
• Chortle Awards in the categories of Best TV Show and Outstanding Achievement (2024)
• National Comedy Awards, in the category of Best Comedy Entertainment Show (2022, 2023)
• Televisual Bulldog Awards, in the Comedy category (2023)

Other notes

• In episode 13 of the Taskmaster podcast, Alex Horne revealed that, in early versions of the pitches for Taskmaster as a TV show, the plan was to have 10 contestants per series (like in the second year of the live Edinburgh show).
• According to Alex, once the decision was made to reduce this to five, there were plans to have the contestants seated in a ‘hive structure’ above the stage, and brought down one at a time to complete tasks.
• Alex has stated on multiple occasions that the first series of the show was only possible once he had secured Frank Skinner as a contestant, after which Greg Davies was fully on-board.
• Alex has also shared that, in persuading the first contestants to agree to appear on the show, he disclosed as an example the task where they had to fill an egg cup with tears.
• In episode 44 of the Taskmaster podcast it was revealed that, in 2015, prior to the shooting of the first series, Phil Wang had been brought in to the Taskmaster house as a task-tester. Phil tested some of the tasks which made it into the first two series, including: the 'Eat as much watermelon as possible' task, from series 1, in which he smashed the melon up with a baseball bat; and the 'Order a pizza without using certain words' task, from series 2, which he found excruciatingly embarrassing.