Greg Davies and Little Alex Horne return for the seventh series with another golden bust to give away.
This time James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman, Phil Wang and Rhod Gilbert are the people taking part, and the mood is best summed up by a remark by Acaster: “I know it’s early days… are we the stupidest so far?” The prize task may be an indicator, the task being bringing in the things they most like to touch. These included a “Do Not Touch” sign and a replica of a large teddy bear owned by Davies that he had an intimate moment with.
The first task proper involved performing the best and fastest quick-change routine, where we were witness to the disturbing site of Gilbert and Horne in matching bikini and thongs, with one ending up topless and the other bottomless. After this the players had to build the highest tower of cardboard boxes in 20 minutes, but the time was reduced to 5 minutes once they made their first box, where Wang demonstrates where his engineering degree got him today (performing comedy rather than building things) and Acaster fails to use tape to fling a box over a tree branch.
After that, they then had to calculate the circumference of the Taskmaster caravan in baked beans; where Godliman struggled with arithmetic and Gilbert’s failure to take an accurate average proves costly. Finally the prize task involved making the best fruit display hat.
This opening didn’t feel as strong as some previous premieres of Taskmaster, but already we are beginning to see some roles beginning to form. Acaster already appears to be cementing his place in the show – and that place is last. However, there were some good moments – it’s just that they were also sometimes harrowing. Having said that, I think fewer people will be disturbed by Horne in a bikini than seeing him sit on a cake like he did last series. On the plus side, due to the nature of his outfit, you do see a lot of Phil’s wang.
Taskmaster is on Dave at 21.00 on Wednesdays.
