Television Taskmaster | Series 18 starts tonight

Deseree is going to he extremely annoying, isn't she?
 
I was actually wondering the other day what it would be like to have Alan Davies so I am delighted he is there. Love the fact Victoria is there too, articulate and funny so it will be interesting to see her approach to tasks. Never heard of the other three.
 
Deseree is going to he extremely annoying, isn't she?
Yep. :(
In an extremely loud and unfunny way.

The beauty of the show is that the format works very well anyway, and Greg and Alex are always great, so each series is always well worth watching. The contestants though can really make the difference between a good and a great series.

I'm delighted about Victoria and Alan, less so about the other two, and irritated about bloody Desiree. I don't think it'll be a 'great' series, because I don't see a Mike Wozniak, Bob Mortimer, Rhod Gilbert type amongst that group. But I'm looking forward to seeing if Alan and Victoria fulfil their potential.
 
Desiree will seem even worse than usual because the ones everyone will want to see and hear from, Alan and Victoria, will probably be laid back and quiet in the studio.

My bet would be she'll make a good rival for Daisy May Cooper for the worst contestant ever.
Bah, I liked Daisy. Her dynamic with Richard Herring was the best thing about that series. Also, off the back of it I finally watched This Country, which was great, so I'm a fan now. And I've only come across Desiree on the Off Menu podcast, so can't quite understand the reaction against her.
 
Certainly ended up being one of the best series for me. Good chemistry all round and Lee and Mike made a great team on the team tasks.

Read on reddit that someone thought Alex dressed up as the Roman soldier for the weighing task as a hint - Archimedes got killed by a Roman soldier.

Great how Charlotte lived up to the aspiring children's tv presenter throughout despite the tasks being filmed before the studio bit.

I take responsibility for Mike not winning as I got him in a sweepstake on another site.
 
Certainly ended up being one of the best series for me. Good chemistry all round and Lee and Mike made a great team on the team tasks.

Read on reddit that someone thought Alex dressed up as the Roman soldier for the weighing task as a hint - Archimedes got killed by a Roman soldier.

Great how Charlotte lived up to the aspiring children's tv presenter throughout despite the tasks being filmed before the studio bit.

I take responsibility for Mike not winning as I got him in a sweepstake on another site.
I think if they reversed his and Sarah's score for the dinosaur task - which could easily have happened, given hers looked nothing like a dinosaur - Wozniac would have won.

Not that I'm bitter, I just would have liked to have seen more from him in Champion of Champions one day. Also, as the first winner of the first ever Taskmaster at Edinburgh, it would have been fitting.
 
I think if they reversed his and Sarah's score for the dinosaur task - which could easily have happened, given hers looked nothing like a dinosaur - Wozniac would have won.

Not that I'm bitter, I just would have liked to have seen more from him in Champion of Champions one day. Also, as the first winner of the first ever Taskmaster at Edinburgh, it would have been fitting.

Have they not skipped a champion of champions? I wouldn't be surprised if it's because they're all dull.

I didn't know that about the Edinburgh one. We happened to watch Man Down before this series so was pleased he was in but he's definitely won a lot of new fans.
 
Have they not skipped a champion of champions? I wouldn't be surprised if it's because they're all dull.

I didn't know that about the Edinburgh one. We happened to watch Man Down before this series so was pleased he was in but he's definitely won a lot of new fans.

They could do an All Stars like RuPaul’s Drag Race does. That way they don’t limit themselves to previous winners.
 
I think if they reversed his and Sarah's score for the dinosaur task - which could easily have happened, given hers looked nothing like a dinosaur - Wozniac would have won.

Not that I'm bitter, I just would have liked to have seen more from him in Champion of Champions one day. Also, as the first winner of the first ever Taskmaster at Edinburgh, it would have been fitting.

Nah, I think the scoring for that one was fair personally. Mike's looked a lot less like one whereas she tried to do the full body and everything.
Have they not skipped a champion of champions? I wouldn't be surprised if it's because they're all dull.

I didn't know that about the Edinburgh one. We happened to watch Man Down before this series so was pleased he was in but he's definitely won a lot of new fans.
I reckon CoC2 will be on around Christmas. For some of the home tasks that have been put on YouTube, the background had the golden decoration in the house which they had for the first CoC so think filming is underway/done.
 
Was listening to the podcast earlier, didn't realize all the non team tasks were filmed before Covid. Mad that they film them that far in advance.

Alex was also saying that VCM is totally unlike anyone they've had before and they Alan Davies supposedly sat in his caravan after the first day and said he didn't think the show was for him, so looking forward to the next series.
 
Surely not? There were individual tasks in the previous series that were clearly affected by Covid, as I recall.
I think they may film two series at the same time. The last series had a live task that was the idea of one of Lee Mack's kids, and she told them the idea on a visit to the studio, apparently.
 
I think they may film two series at the same time. The last series had a live task that was the idea of one of Lee Mack's kids, and she told them the idea on a visit to the studio, apparently.
Yeah, 10 and 11 were filmed around the same time which would have been early lockdown for the team tasks and maybe just before that for some individual tasks depending on when people were available for recording.
 
Surely not? There were individual tasks in the previous series that were clearly affected by Covid, as I recall.
Apparently so. Makes sense as the task to weigh Alex's head and feet wouldn't have been possible in Covid times.
 
Apparently so. Makes sense as the task to weigh Alex's head and feet wouldn't have been possible in Covid times.

I did think that one was odd, but thought maybe restrictions had been eased and they had been tested or something. Professional sports are a thing, after all, and TV series and movies are currently being filmed in many places.
 
Alex was also saying that VCM is totally unlike anyone they've had before and they Alan Davies supposedly sat in his caravan after the first day and said he didn't think the show was for him, so looking forward to the next series.
Sounds like a good old fashion Taskmaster breakdown :lol:
I like the line up for the next series, could be a very good one.
 
Was listening to the podcast earlier, didn't realize all the non team tasks were filmed before Covid. Mad that they film them that far in advance.

Alex was also saying that VCM is totally unlike anyone they've had before and they Alan Davies supposedly sat in his caravan after the first day and said he didn't think the show was for him, so looking forward to the next series.

I guess there's a chance this was further from shooting because of COVID (if team tasks were delayed 3 months from March to say June) and then the added complication of the switch from Dave to Channel 4. Perhaps if the contract with Dave ended sooner they'd have broadcast sooner on C4.

Looking forward to the next one. I've always thought David Mitchell could be either the best or worst contestant on taskmaster, so hoping a good experience from VCM (like a footballer) could help.
 
Anyone watching the NZ version?
someone is uploading them on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/c/ozmartian/videos

It's the best version outside the UK...

Caught up on them, I agree it's the only one close to ours.

It does have some very weird undertones though, the kiwis are very odd to say the least (and very behind the times too with some of the humour!) and also there's no way some of those tasks would happen over here in terms of Health and Safety :lol:
 
NZ one is great, maybe cause their accent is awesome :lol:

I think their humour is good too.

UK, NZ and also the Norwegian one is good - except the channel that does the show in Norway has too few comedians, so some have been on more seasons :p
 
NZ one is great, maybe cause their accent is awesome :lol:

I think their humour is good too.

UK, NZ and also the Norwegian one is good - except the channel that does the show in Norway has too few comedians, so some have been on more seasons :p
I wouldn't mind that. Would love to see the likes of Bob Mortimer or Rhod Gilbert on again.
 
I wouldn't mind that. Would love to see the likes of Bob Mortimer or Rhod Gilbert on again.

Yeah, and the guy that was in the last season, don't remember his name, but he was funny :)
 
Kiwi's are proper weird tbf. Watch Guy Williams on YouTube and you'll see what they're like :lol:
 
Great news.

Really looking forward to it, and to see Victoria Coren Mitchell on it. Just a shame about Desiree Burch.
I've seen her on a few more things since she was announced as a new TM contestant. Still not got a clue why so many people seem to have a such a problem with her.
 
I've seen her on a few more things since she was announced as a new TM contestant. Still not got a clue why so many people seem to have a such a problem with her.
She's just not my kind of humour and although that's inevitable with panels of comedians, it's the ones who are loud and in your face that I find harder to put up with if I don't find them funny to begin with. I'd put Desiree Burch in that group. Same with Aisling Bea.

I'm sure some others will like them, and some will dislike ones that I like - and I wouldn't be puzzled by that as styles of comedy are subjective and many will have different favourites and least favourites. Desiree Burch's style is just one that I find overly loud and not particularly funny.
 
She's just not my kind of humour and although that's inevitable with panels of comedians, it's the ones who are loud and in your face that I find harder to put up with if I don't find them funny to begin with. I'd put Desiree Burch in that group. Same with Aisling Bea.

I'm sure some others will like them, and some will dislike ones that I like - and I wouldn't be puzzled by that as styles of comedy are subjective and many will have different favourites and least favourites. Desiree Burch's style is just one that I find overly loud and not particularly funny.

Taskmaster is quite good for that though. There have been quite a few people I've not liked to begin with and then I've done a 180 by the end of the show. Jamali was one from last season.

I'll reserve judgement until I've seen her for a few episodes. My only knowledge of her is posters in here saying she's bad.
 
Taskmaster is quite good for that though. There have been quite a few people I've not liked to begin with and then I've done a 180 by the end of the show. Jamali was one from last season.

I'll reserve judgement until I've seen her for a few episodes. My only knowledge of her is posters in here saying she's bad.
Yeah, I agree Taskmaster - and House of Games - gives a chance to see people whose humour you don't particularly like and yet warm to them a bit more regardless of that.

That happened with Nish Kumar and Rob Beckett with me. But it didn't work with Aisling Bea and Lou Sanders, who I found just as loud and annoying as I do on other shows. It also gives a chance to get a good idea about people you didn't know - I found out about Mike Wozniak and Charlotte Ritchie in the last series who I liked, but Mawaan Rizwan in the previous series was hard work.

As regards Desiree Burch, I imagine most will like her. She seems to be the type that's popular nowadays. It just depends on if you like that kind of loud humour. It's kind of like The Hundred in cricket - I didn't like it as it wasn't my type of thing, but I knew it would be popular as the loud, dumbed down nature of it was carefully and deliberately designed to fit the modern market. Desiree Burch is in a similar mould - not my type of thing, and I'm sure I'll find her hard work; but I expect she'll probably prove popular with plenty of viewers.
 
I used to think Ian Sterling was a complete prick before Taskmaster and after watching him on it, I still think he's a complete prick.