DAVID BADDIEL, ED GAMBLE, JO BRAND, KATY WIX, ROSE MATAFEO
Wednesday 10 July 2019 In the aftermath of another heroically fought tournament, Taskmaster Greg Davies and his sidekick Little Alex Horne are set to open the doors of the Taskmaster House to welcome a new quintet of contenders for the 9th series of the double BAFTA-nominated and Broadcast Award-winning UKTV Original series; Taskmaster, which returns to Dave in September.
Competing to win the Taskmasters golden likeness and the coveted title of Taskmaster Series 9 Champion are: David Baddiel (Olivier Award nominated comedian, author, and presenter), Ed Gamble (comedian, BBC Twos Mock The Week) regular and chart-topping podcaster with Off Menu), Jo Brand (comedian, writer and star of BAFTA-winning series BBC Fours Getting On), Katy Wix (comedian and actress featuring in BBC Ones Ghosts, and Channel 4s The Windsors), and Rose Matafeo (Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner 2018, comedian and writer, ITVs Royal Variety Performance). Subjecting themselves to the Taskmasters characteristically unpredictable rulings and flippant scoring system, this band of hopefuls will be put through a relentlessly bizarre series of tasks spread over ten nail-biting episodes to determine the next Taskmaster Champion.
Produced by Avalon, the eighth series of the Dave show starring Iain Stirling, Joe Thomas, Lou Sanders, Paul Sinha and Sian Gibson is the most successful to date with an average of 1.7 million viewers per episode, increasing by 16% compared to the last series and remains the most watched show on UKTV Play with over 5.5 million views since January 2019*.
Taskmaster was crowned Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018. The series has been nominated for an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment, two BAFTA nominations for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme plus nominations at the RTS Awards, Broadcasting Press Guild Awards consecutively for the past four years. 2019 has seen nominations for Broadcast Digital Awards for Best Entertainment Programme and Best Gamechanger Programme, and two further nominations earlier this year at the Broadcast Awards 2019 for Best Entertainment Programme and Best Multichannel Programme.
The Taskmaster format has been sold into 17 countries including local versions of the show being developed for Comedy Central in the U.S. (starring Reggie Watts as the Taskmaster), TV 2 in Denmark, VTM in Belgium, TVE in Spain, and two series on Swedens SVT channel.
The launch of the Taskmaster Book 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People was met with huge popularity, sold over 60K copies following publication, and swiftly rose to join top 20 bestselling hardback books in the UK four days after its release during the competitive Autumn/Winter sales period. A paperback version will be released on 5th September, while a Taskmaster boardgame is set to be released in Autumn this year.
The ninth series of Taskmaster will air on Dave in September, catch up on series 1-8 on UKTV Play
_
What the press has said about Taskmaster Funny, revealing, and glorious...Caitlin Moran once wrote that the comedy panel game is one of the glories of British TV. A new one shone bright last night
***** Andrew Billen, The Times
The kind of Dave thing that shouldnt quite work but is actually wildly stupid fun. Mainly thanks to Alex Horne, late of so much splendid radio, and Greg Davies...a winner
Euan Ferguson, The Observer
No other TV show makes the jeopardy of losing self-respect quite so funny... brilliantly entertaining
Frances Taylor, Radio Times
Never less than brilliant
Mike Ward, Daily Star
Winning as ever
Sharon Lougher, Metro
Ludicrously funny
***** Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
One of the funniest game shows on TV
**** Natasha Holt, TV Times Magazine
The keynote themes are ludicrous absurdity and moderately cruel sadism. Somehow, however, it all works brilliantly, with the presence of Horne adding the barest modicum of civility to proceedings...prepare for tears of laughter
Mark Wareham, Mail on Sunday, Event Magazine
Taskmaster is an unashamed celebration of the bizarre and the mediocre
Sam Wollaston, G2 Guardian
Never before has anything so absurd, so stupid, so utterly pointless, made such good television
Sara Wallis, Daily Mirror
Inventive
Mike Ward, Saturday Magazine, Daily Express
Reassuringly absurd and funny as ever
The Sun, TV Magazine
Creative Chaos
Emma Messenger, TV Choice
This seems to be a series that really brings families together
Bruce Dessau, Beyond the Joke
Splendidly silly
Sunday Times, Culture
Clever
David Stephenson, Sunday Express, S Magazine
The show routinely delivers the funniest, most unexpected comedy of the TV week...The cleverest spin on the panel show format in years, its must-watch TV
Wesley Mead, Den of Geek
_
Notes to Editors
*UKTV Play data from Monthly pivots (Adobe Analytics / pay platform data) from Jan - May 2019
For more information, please contact: Gem Pinkney, Publicity Manager, UKTV
Florrie Sheehan, Avalon, FSheehan@avalon-entertainment.com, 0207 598 7222
About Dave
Freeview 19, Sky 111, Virgin 127, YouView 19, Freesat 157, BT & TalkTalk 19 On demand on UKTVPlay Ever since it was knee high to a TV remote, Dave had an idea. It wanted to be the first place viewers would come for brand-new, award-winning entertainment from the biggest and brightest stars and production companies in the UK. And in the years since, it has launched some of the most exciting and best-loved titles on TV.
There are names like BAFTA and Emmy-nominated Taskmaster - now in its ninth series -, Judge Romesh, Hypothetical, Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier and Comedians Giving Lectures. And of course theres Dave Gorman, whose inquisitive mind is returning to the channel for Terms and Conditions Apply. Its not just in front of the camera where the
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DAVID BADDIEL, ED GAMBLE, JO BRAND, KATY WIX, ROSE MATAFEO
