Taskmaster series featuring Rosie Ramsey shows the show still has heart after 19 seasons
After 19 series, some viewers may be wondering whether Taskmaster can still surprise us.
The social-media reaction to the task where Mathew Baynton was challenged to eat yoghurt in the least dignified manner possible proved that yes, it really can. (If you’re wondering, he stripped down to his underwear and licked it off Alex Horne’s shoes.)
The Ghosts and Horrible Histories actor admits even he was a bit taken aback when he saw the footage. He says: “It’s so weird how that, on the day, felt minimal. I just did the things that I thought would be funny, keeping the audience in mind. It feels quite normal in the moment and then you come to the studio and you’re confronted with it on the screen and you think, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have nightmares about that one.’
“I think in hindsight I could have got plenty of points without having to go quite to that extreme.”
In fact, he admits his whole Taskmaster experience has been a bit of a surprise. He says: “I’m a fan of the show, and one of the pleasures of doing this has been going into it and not really knowing what kind of contestant I’ll be. I went into it thinking, ‘I’ll be quite good at this, I’ll be quite a lateral thinker.’
“Then, from day one, when I opened the task, my brain just entered a panic state. My amygdala just went nuts, like some sort of prehistoric fight or flight thing. And so I came home every day thinking, “Oh, actually, it turns out I’m chaos.” I’m that flavour of contestant.”
If you’ve been watching this series, you may be surprised that Mathew thinks of himself as a chaotic one, especially when he’s been on the highest scorers, regularly beating fellow contestants Jason Mantzoukas, Stevie Martin, Rosie Ramsey and Fatiha El-Ghorri.
However, as he points out, away from the team tasks, he had no idea how they were getting on. Mathew says: “I felt while we were filming the tasks that I’d definitely be the one this series who’s an absolute chaos state, and that would become the running joke. Then you get to the studio and you go, ‘Oh, there’s people who’ve had even more of a nightmare than I have.’”
But it seems he’s not too disappointed that he didn’t get to be this series’ agent of chaos. Mathew says: “I didn’t go into it intending to be a certain way. Experience has taught me that, if you pre-arm yourself with ideas, you can cut off access to something which may be more surprising and funny.
But yeah, the dynamic between us all was great.”
As we reach tonight’s final is he Mathew still looking like the obvious winner, or will someone else swoop in and claim victory as Greg Davies and Alex Horne reveal the final scores?
They are certainly giving it their all as Rosie Ramsey puts a wooden box on her head, Fatiha El-Ghorri kicks in a door, and the team known as J. V. Martzoukas (aka Jason Mantzoukas and Stevie Martin) establish a thriving local business. So, at least if they don’t win, they will have something to fall back on.
Words: Rachael Popow
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