Are you ready for the next cast of Taskmaster? As another series draws to a close, Greg Davies and Alex Horne are already looking towards season 18, which is set to air later this year. So who will be taking part? Find out here… 

Taking on the Taskmaster this year, the line-up of brilliant comedians includes The News Quiz host Andy Zaltzman, actor Babatunde Aléshé, Star

Fans will be able to experience the show very soon after Taskmaster: The Live Experience will go ahead in September 2021. Taking place at Dock X in London’s Canada Water, the experience will give fans the chance to step into the shoes of their favourite comedians and enter the iconic Taskmaster House - while completing ridiculous tasks, of course. 

The hugely popular show sees comedian Greg star as the ‘Taskmaster’, who sets out to test the wiles, wit and wisdom of five comedians through a series of strange and surreal challenges. The series is one of Channel 4’s most popular shows in recent years and was the third most streaming show in 2023.

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It has also won several awards, including Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the National Comedy Awards 2022 and 2023, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018.

The show has been met with widespread praise from critics, with Radio Times saying that the show “hasn’t diluted Taskmaster’s inventiveness and verve”, while The Guardian said that it was “one of the most effortless and reliable pleasures TV has to offer”.

Speaking about how he came up with the idea for the show, Alex previously told Channel 4: “Eleven years ago, my wife and I had had a baby, so I didn’t go to Edinburgh Fringe for the first time in years.  

“Tim Key won the comedy award and I was sat at home with the baby feeling very jealous, genuinely. So, I set up a show for the following year and I invited 20 comics. I sent them all emails secretly, didn’t tell them who each other was, and said, ‘I’m starting a new competition which you can enter, I’m going to set you a different task every month.’ Mike Wozniak won it and Tim didn’t, so I was happy. And none of the comedians was Greg Davies.”

Greg joked: “I’d love to tell you it wasn’t noted at the time, but it was noted at the time. I was in a sketch group, We are Klang, and one of the members had been invited by Alex, so I knew about it… it felt like there was a real Edinburgh clique going on and I was in the early stages of my career, excluded by someone I would have thought was a monster.”

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