‘Taskmaster’ is a British panel game show which was first created during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 and then later adapted for television in 2015. The game show series was created by British comedian Alex Horne which premiered on Dave from 2015 until 2019, when the series was acquired by Channel 4.
The television series stars actor and comedian Greg Davies as the titular role of Taskmaster who issues simple yet bizarre tasks for five contestants, with Alex Horne acting as Davies’ assistant as well as an umpire during the tasks. One of the reasons why the series is so brilliant is that the five contestants participating on the show are all comedians.
Each comedian is taken to the “Taskmaster’s house” (sometimes individually, sometimes in a group), where they perform the weird, funny tasks before the series begins. They then meet up during each episode with the Taskmaster and his assistant who assign points (out of 5, usually) based on their performance. The competing comedians are not allowed to have contact with each other, regarding the tasks, so the reactions of everyone involved is quite genuine.
Each episode consists of five tasks – starting off with the Prize Task. During this task, a contest is asked to bring a prize according to the mentioned theme (for example – their most unusual item, their most treasured item, etc.). At the end of the episode, the contest with the most points will receive all of the five items. And at the end of the season, all the points from every task is compiled and totalled, with the winner being awarded a special golden bust featuring the Taskmaster’s head. Next season, this entire cycle repeats itself with five new comedians participating on the show.
The show was made for Greg Davies and Alex Horne. Both of them have a brilliant on-screen persona on the show. Unlike most game show hosts, Davies the Taskmaster does not even attempt to please the audience or the contestants. Instead the Taskmaster expects everyone to bow down to him and fight for the arbitrary points, while his aura of confidence is charismatic enough to sway the live studio audience whenever he speaks. Alex Horne plays a diminutive yet an important part on Taskmaster (not just as the creator) as Davies’ assistant and the banter between them often leaves us in stitches.
The series was difficult to find in India for a while, but recently ‘Taskmaster’ decided to drop seasons 1 to 7 as well as the latest season 10 on YouTube in their official channel “Taskmaster”.
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