Armando Ianucci / Taskmaster S21

Why did you want to do Taskmaster?

It’s such a good, funny, inventive, kind show. It’s just a joy. It’s one of the few shows that’s family viewing: when we watch it, we’re always in a far, far better mood by the end. It’s probably my favourite programme. I thought, ’I’ve got nothing to lose’. I went into it thinking I’d be very uncompetitive. I don’t really go for the ‘I’ve got to win this’, I just thought it would be really enjoyable.

Did you have a strategy?

With a lot of the tasks, once I got told the task, my first thought was, is there something funny I could do here? And then I forgot what the task was, which was fine because I knew there’d be other people who would do the task better. It doesn’t matter. No one looks at the person who came last and goes, ‘What a failure’. It’s not like doing Mastermind with a specialist subject and then only getting two points. As it transpired, I did really well at some tasks and there were others where I seem not to have got the point of it at all, which I think is most people’s experience.

Five minutes into a task, I always forgot there was even a task because I’d get caught up in how to make it stupid or crazy or funny. There was one where Joanna solved it in three minutes, whereas I spent ten minutes wandering around, then realised it was against the clock.

What did you think of your fellow contestants?

What was great is that the five of us seemed to, right from the start, really bonded well. We’re all different. Every set of five is different, but we really gelled.

Did you know anybody beforehand?

I knew Kumail from America because I cast him in an episode of Veep. He was a numbers person, a statistician in the Oval Office. He’s completely transformed since then. On set back then he was hilarious and happy to improvise, but off set he was quiet. Now he’s not quiet at all. He’s transformed physically, too, which might be a requirement of the Marvel Universe. He was great on this. Americans who are in comedy are very comfortable with spontaneity and improvisation.

The others have all said they’re huge fans of your work, and were a bit in awe. Were you aware of that?

Nobody has said anything! Who doesn’t want to be told they’re brilliant? Speak to them again and say I like people coming up and complimenting me! I’m generally unaware of all that stuff because I’m not a showbiz type person. Most of my friends are not in the business at all. I’m not in the comedy circuit WhatsApp groups and I’m not someone who hangs out at clubs and bars. If there’s someone I really like, I’ll get in touch and say, do you want to meet up? That’s the nice thing about being in my twilight era.

What did you think of Joel?

Joel is great. I didn’t really know him before but he’s fantastic. He puts himself down, but he’s so funny in a spontaneous way. Greg initially thought it was funny that Joel and I are two very different men but, as the series goes on, you find out how similar we are. Our approach to a lot of the tasks was slightly the same. We both have that ‘Well, let’s have a go’ attitude. We end up with the same kind of results but totally different energies with the way we actually go about it.

What about Joanna and Amy?

They’re both great, and very funny. Amy has been doing stand-up for a long time and you can tell, because she’s smart and quick. Joanna comes at things from a different angle. I don’t know if she’s tactical or if it’s all instinct, but it’s done beautifully. She’s a mother of four, so everything is coordinating, multitasking, making sure everything is running smoothly. She has that ability, and she’s an amazing actress.

How did you get on with Alex?

Great. I’m such a fan of the show. The first day I drove up and arrived at the Taskmaster house, I just laughed and thought, there it is! Alex is Alex, and Greg is Greg. It’s exactly how you think it’s going to be. For it to last so long and be so successful, they have to be themselves. A show like this can’t work if there’s a bad atmosphere. The production team try to make it as continuous and uninterrupted an experience as possible. It’s not stop-start. There are very few retakes. It’s allowed to flow naturally.

At one point you did a caterpillar dance, which felt unexpected.

The idea of getting up and dancing in front of people traumatises me. I’ve opted out of it so many times. The task was about comfort zone so I thought, what would be terrible to try out in front of people? I hadn’t rehearsed. I should have done a warm-up but I just thought, I’ll go for it. 

You used a lot of physical humour in your tasks, which some people found surprising.

I’m a huge fan of Buster Keaton. What I’m wearing for that dancing task is slightly Buster – black and white, a tie, deadpan face. He was always funny because things would happen and he’d just look at it. He was meticulous. There’s a stunt where a train smashes through a house he’s in, and you think, how many goes can you have at that?

Who do you think would be brilliant on another series?

I think Josie Long would be very good at it. She’d be very funny but also I think she would do well at it.

ends