Greg Davies cuts an imposing figure. At six foot nine, it’d be hard not to, but even through a computer screen, it makes sense why he was chosen to be the face of Taskmaster, the UK panel show where he judges comedians on their ability to perform a lengthy series of ridiculous and inane tasks. He’s got an aura about him, a natural sense of authority that commands a room just as much as anything else about him.
There’s a distinct line between his stand-up work and the character of the Taskmaster — anyone who’s seen Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog can confirm that — but it just makes things even more fun, both for Davies and the audience. When I last spoke to he and (little) Alex Horne for Season 17, he described the persona as a kind of “emotionless, cruel dictator” based partly on his time as a teacher prior to going into comedy.

Taskmaster

Release Date

July 28, 2015

Network

Channel 4, U&Dave

Directors

Andy Devonshire

Cast

Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Self – Taskmaster

Stream

But that’s all it is, a persona, and Davies is as charming as you’d hope for when I sat down to talk to he and Horne for Season 19 of Taskmaster, a show I’ve been watching religiously for years, to the point where I’ve started swearing like former contestant Nish Kumar. (Something, something, life imitates art, etc.) It’s clear that working together for the ten years, in which they’ve racked up almost twice as many seasons, is something both of them deeply enjoy and are proud of, even when presented with fanfiction of themselves.
Nothing in ‘Taskmaster’ Is Ever Expected — Even By Its Hosts

Image via Channel 4

While Davies is the stern face of the show, Horne describes himself as a “prop” for the contestants — this season comprised of Fatiha El-Ghorri, Stevie Martin, Rosie Ramsey, Mathew Baynton, and Jason Mantzoukas — to use during their tasks. Despite being the creator and brains behind the series, he shows a remarkable lack of self-preservation when it comes to being turned into a mermaid (by Ed Gamble in Season 9), or nearly being impaled by a javelin (by Rhod Gilbert in Season 7), and Davies says that he’s “someone who, if you ask him to do something, will always say yes.
“It’s a very endearing quality that extends beyond the boundaries of the show,” he says of his co-host. “Just in life, if you say, “Alex, do this thing,” he’ll go, “Okay.” It’s really fascinating and will almost certainly result in his death one day.”
It seems like it would be hard to get bored with that constant threat looming over your head, and both Davies and Horne seem to agree. The new batch of contestants each season (which are currently airing twice a year) keep them on their toes even after ten years, and things hardly ever turn out like either of them expect to.
“The dynamic between the five [contestants] is never what we expect, never predictable,” Davies says. “Obviously, Alex and the team film the [tasks] in advance, so they’ve got some measure of the people, but then once they’re in the studio, they never behave in the way we expect and we’re reacting in real time and we’re improvising. Someone suggested to me that a lot of our interactions and things are scripted, and I can’t believe anyone would imagine that that mess of response and the knee-jerk reactions you see would in any way be planned.”
‘Taskmaster’ Attracts All Kinds of Personalities

Image via Channel 4

Even when they’re in charge of judging comedians they may know personally — like the aforementioned Gamble and Gilbert, or Season 17 winner John Robins — the “self-contained universe” of Taskmaster, as Davies puts it, keeps things from getting too personal:
“There are different rules, and so [even for] people who are even really good friends of ours, things change. I mean, Rhod Gilbert’s a good example of someone who tried to mess with the system and tried to use his knowledge and his relationship with me to his advantage. But the Taskmaster universe has rules and there’s nothing that an awful, awful person like Rhod Gilbert can do to usurp my authority.”
It’s not just comedians who are invited to the Taskmaster house, however. The series also puts on what it calls a “New Year’s Treat,” a yearly one-off special where British celebrities of all kinds are pitted against each other in a series of tasks I described as akin to “Saw traps for toddlers,” as coined by my best friend. This year’s lineup included footballer David James, mathematician Hannah Fry, singer Melanie Blatt, broadcaster Martin Lewis, and actress Sue Johnston, the latter of whom took home the prize: a giant golden bust of Davies’ head.
Horne says that it’s a slightly different ballgame inviting people on for New Year’s, and that they aren’t interested in people who are already on the publicity circuit. “We know all the agents and we know all the comedians, to be honest, because it’s a very small industry in Britain,” he says. “So, yeah, there’s more of a …you have to tiptoe around it a bit, and we try to avoid having people who are kind of on the merry-go-round of publicity. We don’t want people who are trying to sell an album.”
But that doesn’t stop them from trying to get as many interesting people as they can — and when I asked them who they’d like to have on the special, their answers were far more out of the box than I’d expected. Horne would have chosen the late footballer Diego Maradona, but Davies sprung for the more…unusual choice of politician Rudy Giuliani.
“Is it beyond the realms of reality that Giuliani might come on the show?” he asked. “I don’t see why not. I saw an advert for the guy, he was selling coffee recently, so surely he’ll come on Taskmaster.”
Season 19 of Taskmaster premieres on YouTube in the US and Channel 4 in the UK this month. Check out the full interview with Horne and Davies above.