Five Minutes With…Taskmaster’s Greg Davies and Alex Horne

Silly japes, daring escapades and epic challenges abound as Channel 4’s hilarious Bafta and National Comedy Award-winning game show Taskmaster returns for a 15th series.

Wales-born Greg Davies, 54, and Alex Horne, 44, are back as hosts, and they’re joined by five brilliant celebrities who are all competing to win the Taskmaster trophy.

Greg was born St Asaph in 1968. His parents lived in England at the time, but his Welsh father drove his mum over the border to make sure he would be eligible to play rugby for Wales. Something he is yet to do.

Undated Handout Photo from Taskmaster. Pictured: (L-R) Frankie Boyle, Ivo Graham, Jenny Éclair, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Mae Martin. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Quickfire Davies Horne. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/©Channel 4.

Taking on Horne and Davies’ ridiculous challenges this series are Frankie Boyle, Ivo Graham, Jenny Eclair, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Mae Martin, who all bring something a little bit different to the Taskmaster house.

Ahead of the series’ launch, we catch up with Davies, the Taskmaster himself, and his umpire Horne to find out more about how this year’s contestants fare.

Undated Handout Photo from Taskmaster. Pictured: (L-R) Greg Davies and Alex Horne.

TASKMASTER, AS EVER, HAS A BRILLIANT GROUP OF COMEDIANS THIS SERIES. FIRST UP, FRANKIE BOYLE – A BIT OF A SURPRISE?

GD: I think that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to be surprised about. He’s on it because his children like it.

AH: He sometimes seems surprised that he’s on it as well! It’s unusual to see him without his dignity and not being in charge, but he completely threw himself into it, partly because his kids are big fans, as Greg says, and partly because he really likes the show and I think he trusts us, luckily.

But he had to wait 14 series to really be sure that we’d look after him and agree to do it! He’s got friends, people like Sophie Duker, who helped persuade him.

It was really nice to see him be his normal self. He brought his kids into lots of conversations during the studio shoot, so you see a tender side of him, which was nice.

GD: I make a lot of jokes in this series about him not caring whether he wins or not but, as Alex said, he really entered into the spirit of it.

It’s not that he was sitting there going: ‘who cares?’ – he tried, and was often bad.

It’s nice to see someone like Frankie being incompetent.

HAVEN’T YOU GOT HIM RUNNING AROUND IN HIS PANTS IN ONE TASK?

AH: That was all his idea. I think he was keen to put a stamp on the show. I think he decided: ‘Right, if I’m doing it, I’m doing it.’

GD: It shows a different side to his creativity as well. His normal act is not a natural conduit for some of the things you see him doing and being naturally funny.

WHAT ABOUT IVO GRAHAM … HE’S QUITE CHAOTIC AND ANXIOUS, ISN’T HE?

GD: Wilfully so.

AH: He fits a bit into the David Baddiel or Mark Watson ‘intelligent man doing badly with practical things’, but he’s also got a real playful side. I think he’s in control of his badness.

He was desperate to win it because he knows the show inside out. Most of his mates have done it and that desperation meant going charging into the tasks and then realising it was too late!

He got all giddy and excited, and never stopped to think. But he’s a really thoughtful person generally, so that was surprising.

AND KIELL SMITH-BYNOE? WHAT DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WILL MAKE OF HIM?

AH: I think he’ll surprise people. People will have seen him in things. Even like Ghosts – someone from our art department who loves Ghosts didn’t even put the two together because he’s known as an actor, not as a comedian.

But he’s thankfully a really funny person. And he’s got a face that lights up, a real twinkle.

JENNY ECLAIR IS A JOY!

AH: She is. She had the time of her life, both in and out of the studio. The whole show is meant to be doing stuff you did as a kid that you don’t do any more. You know, you can make a big mess and you can make a little film. She’s really throwing herself into it.

GD: You can really see the inner child in her and I found it so gleeful. There was one task where she just went: ‘f***, yes!’

I think there’s genuine glee there. It’s not performance. She’s doing it for herself.

AH: She’s quite anti-establishment as a person, so this is a good way of breaking rules and not giving a s***.

GD: She’s very, very funny and quite chaotic.

AND FINALLY, CANADIAN COMEDIAN MAE MARTIN. HOW DID THEY GET ON?

AH: They’re quite hard to pin down because they had a really good approach to the tasks, almost more than anyone. They read it and think, “Yes, I know how to do this.”

I think they sometimes think they’re taking it too seriously…

GD: But we like that, don’t we?

They’re quite forensic in the way they approach tasks. I like that.

But then there are flashes of mischief: understated mischief. And they’ll often throw in a very clever call-back or a very witty line.

NOW YOU’VE GOT 15 SERIES UNDER YOUR BELT, WHO WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE ON TASKMASTER IN THE FUTURE?

AH: I thought about RuPaul earlier from Drag Race … I like the look. So RuPaul.

I guess Prince William we still want, do we? He’s one step closer?

GD: William’s right up there for me.

YOU’D WANT PRINCE WILLIAM RATHER THAN HARRY?

GD: Yes, I think so, because William is more likely to be King and the royal family need to reinvent themselves if they are to survive. And what better place to do it than on Taskmaster?

Taskmaster series 15 starts at 9pm on Thursday, March 30 on Channel 4.