Brand new Taskmaster contestants announced

18/02/2019

The double BAFTA nominated and Broadcast Award winning UKTV Original series Taskmaster returns to Dave and welcomes a new group of candidates placing themselves at the mercy of Taskmaster tyrant Greg Davies, and the scrutiny of stats keeper and skivvy Little Alex Horne. Daves eighth series of the most competitive and fierce comedy game show on television will air in May.

Risking life, limb, and dignity in the hope of making the Taskmaster proud are: BAFTA winning comedian Iain Stirling (Love Island, Host of Dog Ate My Homework), actor and writer Joe Thomas (Inbetweeners, Fresh Meat), acclaimed stand-up Lou Sanders (8 Out of 10 Cats, Sick of It), comedian and champion quizzer Paul Sinha (The Chase, Tonight At The Palladium), and BAFTA winning actor Sian Gibson (Peter Kays Car Share, Murder On the Blackpool Express). Unaware of what awaits them in each wax sealed envelope, only one competitor can become the victorious owner of His Royal Task-ness golden head and be crowned the next Taskmaster Champion.

Produced by Avalon, Taskmasters viewing figures have increased series on series. The seventh series of the Dave show starring James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman, Phil Wang, and Rhod Gilbert was the most successful to date with an average of 1.5 million viewers per episode, increasing by 7% compared to the last series and remains the most watched show on UKTV Play with over 7.4 million views.

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Taskmaster was crowned Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018 (beating Strictly Come Dancing, Im A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, Love Island, The Voice UK, and All Round To Mrs. Browns). Nominations for the show include an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment, two BAFTA nominations for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme, RTS Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Award, and two further nominations at the Broadcast Awards 2019 for Best Entertainment Programme and Best Multichannel Programme.

An international hit, Taskmaster has been sold into 17 countries including original 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.

Away from the screen, the launch of the Taskmaster Book 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People was met with huge popularity, sold over 57K 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.

The eighth series of Taskmaster will air on Dave in May, catch up on series 1-7 on UKTV Play #Taskmaster

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

Its glorious mayhem and stupidly funny

David Butcher, Radio Times

Were up to series 7 and its as winning as ever

Sharon Lougher, Metro

Brilliantly madcap comedy game show

****

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

The funniest show on telly

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

For more information and press tickets, please contact: Gem Pinkney gem.pinkney@uktv.co.uk

About Dave

@davechannel

Sky 155, Freeview 17, BT & TalkTalk 17, Freesat 160 On demand on Sky and UKTV Play

Since bursting onto TV sets in 2007, Dave has been putting in hours at the gym and is now a beefed-up powerhouse of brand new and original commissions from some of the biggest stars and production companies in entertainment. Romesh Ranganthan, Jon Richardson and YouTube sensation Yianni Charalambous are just some of the latest additions to the channels ever-increasing slate.

Whether its innovative comedy entertainment like the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated Taskmaster, Unspun with Matt Forde, and Dara o Briains Go 8 Bit or scripted sitcoms including the worldwide hit Red Dwarf, Zapped, and Porters, Daves guaranteed to work your funny bone like never before.

Daves also committed to bringing live sport back to free-to-air and has an ongoing deal to show fights from David Hayes Hayemaker Ringstar venture. Theres also Red Bull Soapbox, Cop Car Workshop, Sin City Motors and a whole host of much loved programming, all shot with Daves unique personality thats led to the channel reaching 20million adults a month.

About UKTV

UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching nearly 40m viewers every month.

The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Go

LINK:	https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/brand-new-taskmaster-contest...
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