Unlike most TV shows out there, you can jump into Taskmaster at any time. With series 17 starting on March 28th (in the UK) and March 29th (in the US via the Taskmaster YouTube channel), it is the perfect time for anyone uninitiated to join in.

All the previous 16 series as well as many international versions are available to view on their YouTube channel. But, series 17 brings a lot of very familiar faces into the Taskmaster house. Along with comedians and actors Joanne McNally, John Robins, and Sophie Willan; series 17 also sports Nick Mohammad (Ted Lasso, comedy personality, Mr Swallow) and Steve Pemberton (Inside No.9, The League of Gentlemen).

Start your viewing pleasure now with series 17 or go back to series 1 and work your way through. Either way, you'll have a blast with each series' contestants as they aim to please the Taskmaster Greg Davies, by completing the random set by show creator and Taskmaster assistant, Alex Horne. Oh, and look at that, Greg and Alex sat down with us to talk about the show and all it means to its fans.

Greg Davies, Alex Horne Taskmaster interview

Note: This interview was conducted ahead of the Taskmaster series 17 premiere

ClutchPoints: Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way — while Taskmaster has obviously grown to the worldwide phenomenon, did you ever expect that you were also going to be premiering a series here in New York?

Greg Davies: I didn't. Alex is a little more arrogant than me. He made a five-year plan.

He said to me five years ago, “[In] five years time, you and I, New York premiere.” I said, “You're a dreamer.” And he goes, “I am a dreamer. But sometimes dreams do come true.”

Sometimes they do come true. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Alex Horne: No, it's all a surprise, but it's a very welcome surprise.

CP: I come into watching Taskmaster before COVID, I think third series was on by the time I finally found it. But I'm the guy who follows this stuff. So, when I see certain names pop up, I know who these people are. And where Taskmaster started, it may have been the case where, we have our show and we have our people that are used to on Channel 4 panel shows that can come on and be guests, but now it's almost like you're introducing people to the world by having them on as guests.

AH: There's a bit of a responsibility from that point of view, and we take that quite seriously of trying to pick people who deserve a shot at a bit of a bigger audience.

GD: You see yourself as that how often? They deserve it.

Both: [laugh]

CP: Look, I find it funny and maybe it's because I am in North America that I'm so used to seeing the comments pop up in a lot of the fan rooms and chats, but I was amazed when series 17 was announced, and people were going like, I don't know any of these names. I'm like, I'm sure plenty of you have watched Ted Lasso, so you must know Nick Mohammed somehow.

AH: Every single season, people say, “I've not heard of any of these people.” And after a few episodes, you know, hopefully they love them.

But yeah, it's the same everywhere. I think, How have you not heard of Steve [Pemberton]?

GD: But we love that part of the show. And quite a few of the people who [are] on the show, we came through with when we first started doing comedy, so they're friends and sort of peers of ours.

And so it's just really exciting [that] if we offer them an audience that they haven't quite found themselves. But Alex said in an interview earlier that all of the people we have on, we think probably would have found an audience eventually, [or] we hope already have found an audience, but the fact that we can perhaps introduce them to people a bit faster, or to slightly different demographics, [is] just really exciting for us.

CP: Well, I think it's also interesting since the fandom is so rabid, in a good way, of course, there are going to be people, even after getting through the entire series 17, who are going to run across somebody writing, not realizing that if you go back to series three, Sarah and John were still dating and that clock that she had was her most flamboyant clock was the cloth that she bought for him. And it's going to create a whole new discussion.

GD: Yeah. It never even occurred to me. You've gone deep!

AH: There are lots of connections because it's a pretty small pond, the British comedy scene. So everyone knows everyone and people have this rivalry, and we never have like double acts on the same episode or partners because it might pull focus too much.

But if two people win a series, we might have [Redacted]. We wouldn't have them on together, but you never know if [Redacted] wins and if [Redacted] wins and they might meet up.

But yeah, you're right. Th fandom. have a much bigger understanding than we do of these things.

GD: Yeah, the universe that we exist in, people remember things that have happened in the show far, far better than I. [laughs]

CP: Well, I mean, look, I definitely rewatch them plenty of times, sometimes just to rewatch, sometimes because I want to have something I know on in the background while I'm working. But yeah, I know the fandom goes kind of deep on this stuff—

AH: Yeah, it's fascinating. It's amazing to have your — even work is a bit too grand a term — work analyzed so much by people when we're basically doing it off the cuff and hoping for the best.

GD: Yeah, the dynamics just happen. More often than not, the dynamic just writes itself in the studio.

CP: I think there's plenty of stuff we know that has been held back, whether it's because you can use it as another Taskmaster later on, or you don't want to give away certain secrets, that fans will go crazy over. 

AH: And often it is just happenstance. Maybe it's not, and sometimes you can retro-engineer and say “Yeah, we thought of that.”

GD: You do have that sort of brain. I do think Alex enjoys planting little easter eggs and little surprises. I can tell because he starts licking his lips.

AH: There's a Taskmaster from a few series ago, which you probably know about, because it sounds like you know your stuff, where they had to work out how heavy my head was, and my feet, and I was dressed up as a Roman Centurion, and no one ever knows why that was the case. And it's so funny seeing people's theories.

CP: You even brought it up on the show at the time that there's a reason, but you didn't give it. 

GD: I'm not sure I know the reason. Do I know the reason?

AH: I don't know if you know the reason.

GD: There is a reason.

AH: Of course there's a reason.

CP: I don't know the reason specifically, but I imagine it has to do with the scent part of Centurion, dealing with a certain mathematical number.

GD: I think it's more likely to be the darker parts of Alex's private life, I think that's what's behind it. [smiles]

CP: We do all go into thinking things a lot deeper than you probably think. I think people don't realize how much work does go into this show and the fact that, well, it may not be 24/7, but you're probably already just finished or about to film series 19 and it's always running that you don't necessarily think about things that we think you may think about. How much goes into this idea of, Well, I know I have this person on this series, so maybe I should hold back this task, because they're gonna be so adept at it. My examples are having artistic stuff for Noel Fielding, and then, this series, I think everything creative that had to be filmed was an ace for Steve.

GD: There's a binary answer coming from Alex on this, and I think you're going to enjoy it. Are you ready?

AH: We don't think about it at all.

CP: I know that too, but that's the way we all think, no matter what. Even though we know it, because now we think it's an easter egg, now we think you're trying to trick us.

AH: We think if you were planning bespoke tasks for certain people, it's not fair on the people. Because there's gonna be at least 30 tasks in the series. Noel Fielding will be covered and Steve Pemberton will be covered. But we like the ones when they do badly.

GD: And also, their responses are never what we expected. Hardly ever do they respond in a way that we thought they would respond. It's one of the joys of the show.

So I think even if Alex sat down with some sort of World War II-style planning map and tried to attribute tasks to personalities that they would [surpass] his expectations anyway.

AH: The only time we had to think about things was during lockdown when people had to be two meters apart. So those tasks had to be thought through with a slightly different angle, but the rest is just whatever we think is funny. That's all it is.

CP: I feel like you guys film the show, and of course you're still thinking about what's happening next, but it's just gone almost from that minute. But do you ever go back and think, I'm glad though that we did do that task now instead of previously, because something may have happened if X contestant had that task? 

AH: Yeah, I do sometimes think, Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if that cast had done this task, or if this task was done by another cast. But, you were also right, that as soon as it's done, we move on.

CP: So many people are now so used to your personality Alex in a lot of ways, that they may have not been in the past. And whether or not we see you in different lights when talking to you or seeing you out in the public, we all know that you do have a little bit of a trepidation when it comes to maybe saying certain words or saying certain things to certain people. But I absolutely love when you go so cold-hearted, thinking about New Year's Treat 2, when Lady Leshurr made the basketball on the Claudia's [Winkleman] face and your comment was, “At least it's orange.” One of the greatest things I've heard in my entire life.

AH: Well, I think that is a statement, and I don't really have an answer for you. But I think you do know my personality pretty well, probably.

Well, I mean, both of us, it's a slightly exaggerated version of ourselves, but I'm pretty meek in real life. So having someone say something caustic is quite fun.

CP: I do have to say, I love Nick's American accent.

AH: Where do you think he was from?

CP: Oh, that I have no clue. I'm not good with that anything. I apologize, Greg, I don't even know how to pick out a Welsh accent. No clue.

GD: Oh, yeah, well, bizarrely, it's the only accent I can do. It's of no use to me whatsoever.