Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 131. Series Director - Andy Devonshire - S15 Ep.8

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

It's a very special treat for the Taskmaster Podcast this week, joining Ed to discuss S5 Ep.8 is the big cheese, Andy Devonshire! Andy is the Series Director and Exec Producer of Taskmaster. He has worked on every single episode of the show and this week he's taken some time out to give us a peak behind the curtain of S15. Watch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmasterVisit the Taskmaster Store for all your TM goodies!taskmasterstore.com Visit the Taskmaster YouTube Channelyoutube.com/taskmaster Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every veteran has a story. Whatever your next chapter, get support with health, education, finance and more at veterans.gc.ca slash services. A message from the Taskmaster podcast. It's Ed Gamble here. Of course it is. Who else would it be? Today we are very excited to be talking about Series 15, Episode 8. We are nearing the end of Series 15. We'll be sad to see them go, but we still have three more brilliant episodes to talk about. And today we'll be talking about Series 15, Episode 8, with the brilliant Andy Devonshire. Andy Devonshire, of course, Director of Taskmaster.

He is the Director of Taskmaster. He's the only Director of Taskmaster. He's been with the show since the very beginning. All of the style, the look of Taskmaster. Surely, you've got to give a lot of that to Andy. He's absolutely brilliant. He is a wonderful man. He's very dedicated to the show. He enjoys making fun of me, so I look forward to a bit of that. But he has great insight into this episode and the show as a whole, so we'll be hopefully getting some big old scoops from Andy D. Without further ado, this is Taskmaster Series 15, Episode 8, as discussed by Andy Devonshire.

Welcome, Andy D slash Devonshire, to the Taskmaster Podcast. Hi Ed, thank you very much for having me. Hey look, we had Andy C on, and we can't have Andy C on and not have Andy D on, you know. This is completing the circle now. We've now had all all of i like to call them the real task masters you you and andy c working away in the background pulling the puppet strings you're in control would that be correct to say oh absolutely i mean nothing nothing happens without our our say so and at least you're doing it alphabetically i mean you know when you say we're in control i think i think control is a very interesting word to use in these kind of circumstances. I think control isn't something you necessarily have any time at all across the series of Taskmaster.

Yes, I mean, it does have, obviously, Taskmaster by design has a very chaotic nonsense feel to it. So you can only have a certain amount of control over that. But I feel like you are the calm centre of the Taskmaster universe. Well, thank you very much. You you know Chaos Masters is what we are I mean you know we love what we do and it's a it's a privilege and an honor to do it it's just you know it's a genuinely special kind of job it's probably insane as you can well imagine but it's a it's a great thing to be doing. So you you have you have directed Taskmaster since the very beginning you you've worked on every series and the pilot and would it be fair to say that the

the visuals of Taskmaster uh main mainly are there uh because you buy new cameras and you can't wait to try them out basically it's just finding new cameras to break is what happens I mean look you know I've got this amazing camera team you know of which i i sort of shamble about in the middle of it so uh but it's very much a visual show it's something that i think is important to the show uh the idea of the series is to make it you know to have one level of of giving it a look and sort of pushing that look every series and every time we do something finding different ways to look at things just because that involves getting new cameras doesn't mean saying you know it's not the only reason yeah you say that but i i know that every time i've turned up to film taskmaster

the first thing i normally hear about is andy's got a new camera and he's very excited about it that's normally normally sort of a couple of days before and's broken his new camera and is very upset about it. Sorry, Paul Sinner, basically, I bought a brand new lens, a new particular lens on my new camera, and Paul Sinner reversed a shopping trolley into it. I literally took the cap off it. And he said hello to it with his rear end, as it were. Yes, we talked about that episode very recently uh it was that that would have been the final task of series eight i guess where they were driving around the little carts uh blindfolded and paul reversed over the

camera and broke it immediately which you know you could you blindfolded him you can't blame him for that andy i can of course you can that, Andy. Of course you can. That's my job. The person you can blame is me during Champion of Champions. I believe you just bought a new camera and you put it next to the pond when I was doing my disastrous get the duck in the pond task. And out of anger, this didn't make the edit. I simply kicked it into the water. You told me you didn't want to talk about that, Ed.

It's obviously still part of something you're processing. Yeah, I'm proud of it. That's the one thing I'm proud of in that task. I brought your new camera. The camera's still there. It's in the pond. We buried it with the duck and your ego and your soul and your basic sense of well-being.

It's all buried in the Taskmaster garden along with various other things, chickpeas, etc. Now, obviously, you've worked on every series and the pilot, so we wouldn't dare ask you your favourite series or anything like that, because, of course, I'm guessing your favourite series is the one that you're working on currently. No, they're all my favourite series. It can't just be the one I'm working on currently because we're working on two or three at the moment, so that's not how it works.

I mean, I know it's something you ask people, I know it's something that you feel you need to sort of drill down. You sent me that note saying as long as I say number i say number nine you'll be all right yes please but basically you can't have a favorite series i mean every it's a really special kind of show i know that sounds so stupid but you have a set of people a unique set of people that come in to do the show with greg alex and with the team you know we're a very small brilliant team you know it's the the team are so fantastic and you work together with these people it's a very special set of circumstances under which you're working with the people these people and they um you have a particular experience

it's like you're going through not not therapy it's definitely some kind of trauma it's probably like you know going to war or something like that with just with more ducks yes a lot more ducks you have a bond with the people in every every series that you do there's a certain bond and you know you feel very close to them you know we watch those we watch between us we watch those each of the tasks probably 40 times before they get into the into the edit or into the final show and so you sort of feel like you have a massive connection with these people even though you only spend sort of 10 days with them or whatever it's not even that um sometimes but each set of people has a distinct character and each each series has a distinct sort of feel to it

so to say who your favorite is doesn't you know would take away from the sort of empire of task master i think yes i I do agree with you. But then I would also say the Taskmaster fan base, they love Taskmaster and they are also the sort of people who love making lists. Well, that's... I'm very happy for them. The list, you know, you can just have a list that's got one level. You can have a list and everything can be side by side

and everything is all equal. Yes, that's true, that's true. That's You can have a list and everything can be side by side and everything is all equal. Yes, that's true. That's true. That's called a boring list, Andy. Still a list. Do you have a moment though? So I wouldn't ask you favourite contestants

or favourite series or anything like that. Do you have a moment that just sticks out in your mind as your favourite moment or the abiding memory of Taskmaster's previous?

I mean, there are too many memories. I mean, the terrible thing I want to tell you is that the final episode of Series 16, there is a task that is absolutely mind-blowing. I know that's a long way away. I'm really sorry. We're still watching 15 over here, mate. Yeah, so there you go. But apart from that, I uh in the early days we there was a moment when i basically thought we'd killed romesh i literally thought we killed romesh and i was standing

outside the toilet in the taskmaster house as he retched and uh regurgitated three pounds of watermelon and i literally thought it thought it was kind of, I think it was our first day filming on that series or something. It was something really early on. I thought we'd just killed someone. And couldn't really see myself getting to series 16 and series 15 and talking to you about it. There is a world, Andy, somewhere,

if we are to believe the multiverse theory, that Ramesh died during the first episode of series one and Taskmaster was no more and what an awful world that was. I believe in parallel universes. I completely love the idea of parallel universes. It's a great thing, but I don't want to think about that one. Let's think about the one where I won champion of champions. What a universe that is. Yeah. Come on, if you believe in parallel universes,

you have to admit that there is one where I won champion of champions, Andy. Well, but, you know, maybe there is a limit to parallel universes. Maybe there are certain things that just couldn't ever exist. No, I've seen everything everywhere all at once. If there's sausage fingers, there's gamble as champion of champions. Are you crying, Ed? No. Don't you dare do that. You've got something in your eye. at once if there's sausage fingers there's gamble as champion of champions are you crying ed no don't you dare do that something in your eye i've got nothing in my eye i'm sorry i've got hope i'm

sorry it was i mean honestly it was one of the most it was the longest hours of your your life i'm sure it was one of the longer hours of hours yeah uh longest hours in our lives when we saw you up that driveway it was It was pretty painful. Yes, I mean, certainly there was... I always, you know, check on the crew to see how they're doing during long tasks. And it went from funny to disbelief to funny again. And then it went on for so long that everyone just went hungry.

And then the delivery man arrived at the gate behind me and I thought, I've got to wrap this up soon. This crew are going to start striking. Did we show you the pictures? Because Andrew Dames and I, Dancing Santa, we did what you did. Because we had to test. Because obviously it was perfectly measured so that there were exactly the right number of tubes and scientifically possible. We did that. It was snowing. There was like a couple of inches of

snow around the house and stuff like that. It was really freezing cold. We did about 10 minutes I think. Yeah but that's a lie. So let's talk about this episode, Andy. Series 15, episode 8, 100% Bosco, which, I mean, to us is now. This is happening now. The episode's just come out. To you, this must seem like a very long time ago.

In some ways, yeah, but obviously because we spent so much time on it i mean as i've said before it's that thing where we've seen those tasks so many times and then we've been in the edit you know for multiple viewings of the of the uh final show so you know it's very fresh in our minds and you know it's a really good series really lovely bunch of people and it's a it's a good episode i think it's an outstanding series i mean they all are i would i i do i feel like i have to say that but also i do believe it uh and it is a wonderful mix of people um and uh it's just been brilliant and it seems a shame that it's coming to to the end but already you've given us a little a little hint that series 16 is also brilliant so we're looking forward to that um let's talk about the prize task in this episode

the best thing you take everywhere but you struggle to fit in your bag now i often level accusations alex horn that he's running out of ideas for prize tasks and then occasionally he'll come out with a completely simple one that you can't believe he's never done before and occasionally you get the best thing you take everywhere with you but struggle to fit in your bag, which I love, but it's a slightly trickier one. I think it's fairly straightforward. I mean, what would you bring? Well, I've long given up thinking about what I would bring.

I mean, it would torture me, Andy, if I sat here all the time and tried to work out what I would bring. I think I'd go maybe in the direction of May and Frankie and try and challenge that my bag's very small and then just bring something random in with me. Because I'd rather do that than do what Jenny did.

So let's talk about what Jenny and Kyle did as a group. You could have predicted what Jenny would bring in having seen her behaviour beforehand. I mean, it's a perfectly fitting thing. And as with Kyle,

I mean, Kyle basically makes anything funny yes you know he could he he has a way of bringing those the sort of joy in this or he's a perfect taskmaster contestant because he he is cut him and he bleeds joy you know he's yes uh not that you'd want to cut him but um uh he brings in brings in the chair and you can see he would do that. Or even if he didn't, he just tries to sell it in such a convincing way. And Jenny, I mean, it was not a surprise to think

that that's something that she would seriously consider having in her bag. I think she would consider having it in her bag. Here's what I'm going to say, Andy, and I'm bringing the hot takes, the spicy takes. There is absolutely no way Jenny carries that around with her that bed but greg absolutely buys into the fact that jenny carries that bed around with her but refuses to believe that kyle carries a folding chair around with him so what are you saying so what i'm saying

is i find greg's bias i think greg i feel like he is biased he's normally biased towards the older contestants especially when they're talking about being tired um uh and not being bothered I think Greg immediately connects with that and I think that he understands that uh on a level that means that he's more likely to let people get away with things I think it's unlikely that Jenny or Kyle carry those things around with them and they should have been judged the same jenny should not have got an extra point for an inflatable bed well but you see it's it's the uh experience and the and the sort of uh battle hardened side of jenny that's that means she can be convincing in sort of selling that whereas kyle has just got that cheeky little glint in his eye it's long been beaten out of jenny's jenny's performance that she you know she has a way of convincing you that this is what she did

whereas Kyle you just can't believe him because he's just too cheeky smiling behind everything, too cheeky too cheeky for points I would also say, Jenny's trying to paint herself as being tired all the time I don't think that is something that she has shown on Taskmaster at all, I think

contrary to a lot of the other sort of, in inverted commas older contestants that have been on the show before jenny has bags more energy than even some of the younger contestants on this series so i don't buy this bed thing i don't think she needs it i think she's carrying an inflatable bed she's probably bouncing on it and giggling well i think you're probably right i think i think you're absolutely right she's one of those people that you know uh plays but being old but actually is sort of she's got the cheeky cheeky side of a youngster so springy as her step i think i think you know she's bouncing around bouncing around on it she's

yeah you're right so but but she's still got the points i mean how she said i brought this on because it's my portal bouncy castle yeah that'd be something different yeah no it was more of uh it was just more of a point i didn't like the way she presented herself i think she needs to be kinder to herself um but it was it was five points for jenny and only everyone else got four points so frankie brought in another picture i'm starting to get annoyed with this now andy i'm starting to get i love frankie and i loved a lot of his prize tasks previously but he's brought in another picture and it's starting to get on my nerves but you see I think you know in all the discussions we had about the um prize tasks and things like that most of the design of it is to wind you up and to make

you cross and angry as you look back on things it's added another level of joy to what we do know we can needle and and egg you on and make you miserable and upset. In a loving and a giving way, Ed, obviously. Yes, of course, of course. And look, I love the picture of him and his son on stage together. I think it's a beautiful story with his son coming on to tell his joke, which was simply the word yellow. And I do believe that he carries that round everywhere with him.

I think it's lovely, it's sentimental. And I also love that this price task ends when greg says do you think your pick why should your picture get more points and frankie said who gives a fuck he's finally episode eight he's completely lost patience with the nonsense of taskmaster oh but you know he's i mean it's a fundamentally funny thing to say at that point in time but he's been such a brilliant part of the show in terms of, you know, if that had been episode one, you know, you'd worry, but actually he threw himself into this series so brilliantly. He's so, it was so committed and so fantastic.

Oh yeah, you can't accuse Frankie of not being committed after the faking his own death, running alongside the Thames in his pants. There's absolutely no way he's not committed. And you're right. I think it's that thing of if someone's undercutting it, episode one, and going, oh, why does this matter? It's just silly. Then you'd really worry.

I think you have to leave it this late and you have to be Frankie. It's the only person who can get away with it. You know, he offered to do that uh running out of the Thames naked he said to be to fully commit to it and he was that's how convinced how committed he was to the show yeah he was he was prepared to do that naked we had to stop him basically and as it was I don't think you can see it. I think we had to blur her out. There was a really confused woman walking along the path. No, she was just trying to take a photo.

Yeah. Very confused woman because it was like 10 in the morning, you know, walking along and there's Frankie running past in his pants. I mean, thank God he wasn't naked in that sense because it could have ended

with a phone call to the police, I think. Well, I mean, the parallel universe is we're all in prison. Yeah. Another parallel universe and we're all in prison. Yeah, another parallel universe, and I am champion of champions. But look, it was a lovely picture from Frankie, but it's another piece of art. Ivo, you can never accuse Ivo of underselling his prize tasks.

I think he's the most prepared with his pitch for the prize tasks I've ever seen. It's almost like a Dragon's Den pitch. He's always got a little monologue about everything. And as Greg says in this episode, you sound like a psychopath. Well, I think this wasn't unusual to have five points and then four points all along. It was a particularly generous day. I mean, I think Ivo goes in with his full pitch and goes in with his full conviction

but then underneath is basically expecting one or two points. I think that's Ivo's. Ivo is so brilliant. He's so funny and just committed but he does always look in this show like someone just killed his cat.

But I think that's almost from the beginning as well, because it's not like, because he's not doing well now, right? So, you know, we're on episode eight. It's clearly not Ivo's game to win. But you would have thought... Still a few points left, Ed.

Come on, Andy. You would have thought maybe episode one, he'd be a bit more confident about it. But I suppose you know going into the studio how you've done in the film tasks so that that lack of confidence was always there in ivo's eyes yeah it's it's so funny though isn't it because it's you know time and again you have this thing where i think at the outset for most people the outset of the series and um they have the um wherewithal of their character. They go into the series driven by their own characters

and they fulfil their style and their way of working. I think what Taskmaster does really well is it displays your character across the series. Yes. And I think it's an opportunity. Everyone that comes on shows their true self and i think that's you know something we encourage and nurture and so i think when people come in with a lack of confidence and a lack of and a doubt about how they're going to be performing that might not necessarily be

reflected in the points but yeah it kind of still feels self-fulfilling by the time you get to this part at the time yeah when you expect you've done badly and then you see you've done badly. Happens the other way around, you know. Some people go into episodes expecting to smash it out the park and then end up chopping the head off a duck. It's interesting, yeah. You say people go in knowing their characters. I think I went into it, and I'm sure there's other people

who've been through the same thing, where I went into it thinking, I'm sure there's other people who've been through the same thing, where I went into it thinking, I think I'm going to be a chilled out funny guy. You know, I'm just there for a laugh. Ten minutes later. Ten minutes later, it's like, oh no. There's absolutely no way I can't be myself here. Very similar experience the other day.

We were both playing in the Alex Horne charity football game at Chesham United. I do not play football. I'm a terrible footballer. Well, I've not played in 20 years. I was very jet-lagged, but I thought, you know, you don't play football. You don't really care how it goes,

so you're going to be pretty relaxed. You're going to be quite chilled out. You'll probably have a laugh. Cut to me noticing that your team had 13 players on the pitch and scored a goal. I ran on and told the referee and got the goal disallowed. You were foaming at the mouth I just can't stand by holding a chicken leg I had told chicken leg by the way I wasn't just hungry that was part of the rules um yeah absolutely as I was doing I thought you are

pathetic you're so petty we're already in the lead And it was for charity. It was 10-6 at the time. We were losing. Mark Olver was in his Crocs playing. And you had to run on at that time. I can't stand by and let that injustice happen. And we won. We won. I ran seven and a half miles that day.

I didn't. I was left back. I stayed in my four-metre square area and refused to move. Hugh Dennis constantly going, come over here, get over here, get over here, get over here. They're coming up this way. I was like, okay, Hugh, you deal with it, man. He had a lovely day out.

He did. We should talk about what May brought in because I thought this was great. I thought bringing in very fine whiskey in a flask I thought this isn't going to be good that's smaller than most bags but then May had brought in a tiny bag and made a tiny wallet and tiny phone

this sums May up they are so dedicated to this show the effort that went into this unfortunately slightly deflated by Frankie's offhand comment about having a small bag um but i felt like this effort should have been rewarded this should have been five points andy i mean you say this to me as if i have any agency in at all i mean

well you'll do the same you'll do the same thing andy c did where you would you refuse to get involved in the chat about who should have got more points because you're scared, man, because you're living under a dictatorship. Oh, is that what Andy said? Because basically, it's just a way for me to hide the fact that we're in charge of it. We give Greg all the points. We make all the decisions.

Greg makes no off-the-cuff decisions. You know, it's all preordained. We write it, you know. Everyone all pre-ordained we write it you know everyone says this we write the whole series we we know who who wins who wins every point it's all predetermined it's not a game show it's a it's a sitcom scripted written this month in advance yeah yeah i mean even you saying that sarcastically will cause someone to say that on the reddit as if it's fact and you know that that's okay i mean it's you know it's great that we have such dedicated fact it's so it's genuinely so lovely having people that are so interested in it even you know even if i'd love to think that we we were much more in control of it i mean you know it's an organic it is an organic process

the it's genuinely we don't fix the points. Richard Osman in Series 2 was either just surprised or appalled at our cavalier attitude to making the games work and making the, you know, because obviously we can construct, we could make it so that some shows are more exciting or more controversial more you know we could be much more playful with the uh outcomes and we could put different tasks together to make them work for the points things like that but actually we make it to make the best possible shows that we we have and we let things happen and so sometimes you'll have someone run away with an episode because we put three tasks where they're doing well next to each other.

We don't do it for the points. We want to have the best cocktail of tasks in any given episode. So for us, it's not about the points. I have a question, and this is a good question, so strap in. Even if you say so yourself. How do you decide what's going to be the opening task of a series and the closing task of a series? What are you looking for?

I thought that was a good question. It's a very good question, Ed. It's just quite hard to answer. We want something that either nails their characters. I mean, ideally, we have something that either nails their characters. I mean, ideally we have something that completely nails some or all of their characters within the first, you know, time of the show. Something that shows something big or epic or grand.

I'm just trying to remember all the opening tasks now. We want something that punches through and be it. We can go either way. We either have a big highline task that is showy and filmic and epic, or we have something that's small and crazy, but just captures the essence of what you're about to see. Yeah.

I mean, I think so much of, you know, we touched on it earlier, this whole thing about how the show is about displaying character and about unpacking how someone approaches things. And, you know, we constantly say to people when they come in the house, we just be, you know, don't try and do anything, just you know, we are here and we will help make uh sense sense of what you do you know we're there to encourage and we want people to be themselves rather than trying to play a role we uh want them to trust us and i think and i think we

do well in terms of we we want people to trust us so we reflect what happens and what what they are and how their approach is to something and so a lot of that is about displaying their characters and their reactions to certain things. An opening task, if it looks epic, it's a bang of a start of a series and it displays certain characters in the way that will then have echoes across the series, then that's a perfect task. Yes. Yeah, I see.

Because they're all always different. They always feel different, the perfect task. Yes. Yeah, I see. Because they're all always different. I'm always... They always feel different, the opening tasks. It doesn't feel like you have an absolute formula to this is the sort of task we always open the show with. So I think series nine is the only one I know, obviously. But I think the opening task was hide the aubergines. And then the closing task was the seven tasks.

And personally, watching myself in both of those tasks separately, it really represents the absolute loss of my mind throughout the whole process. And exactly what we set out to do. By way of design of all the tasks and by way of how the show is structured and how it goes across the series. I think that almost means that I made sense in the last rambling answer I gave you. Yeah, you did, absolutely. That actually we across the series. I mean, you know, I think that, God, that almost means that I made sense

in the last rambling answer I gave you. Yeah, you did, absolutely. That actually we designed the task, yeah. We designed the task to show character and to show, you know, something good. I mean, you know, the aubergine task was just a beautiful one, you know, partly because of the magic finger. Of course.

Magic finger and the falling aubergine nose. Yeah. But, and then the seven the seven I mean the seven tasks was one of those horrific tasks that Bex the editor um ended up you know having to rip things apart and make things work it was quite a particularly horrific task to do but we had to get it in and had to fit in fitting fitting a major task in the last episode is always a problem because there's so much more admin to do in the last episode with the you know the the task uh the series winner and stuff like that but actually we felt like that was a perfect way of ending i mean it's it's it's very early on that we we know the first and last

tasks of the series it This filling in everything else is often quite tricky and fiddly because- Oh, interesting, yeah. Certain logistical things you do, but those ones you just go, you know, quite often you come away from a task and go, well, that's, you know, that's up there for one or the other.

Well, episode, it's a cracking episode, this one. And in terms of the prize task, it was Jenny with five points and everyone else got four, a rare moment of generosity from the taskmaster. I'm going to unusually follow Frankie down a sentimental route. I've had very few points for lols-based prize tasks, so here's some goddamn feeling. You sound like a psychopath.

I've brought in one of several puzzles that I do with my daughter, who is three. Here it is. My daughter and I will occasionally have to kill half an hour between nursery and ballet, for example. Nursery for her, ballet for you? That's exactly it. Obviously, the box is an absolute faff, so what I've taken to doing is pouring out the pieces of the puzzle

and while this is very useful for compact packing, it does mean that occasionally I've just got random pieces of dismembered horse just rolling around the bottom of my bag. I think I enjoy this. Thanks. Every veteran has a story. Whatever your next chapter, get support with health, education, finance, and more. At veterans.gc.ca slash services.

A message from the Government of Canada. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. voices we can demand more from the earth or we can demand more from ourselves at york university we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow join us at yorku.ca write the future

task one i feel this is a controversial one as well. Pile the pineapples on the path. You must not get wet. Most pineapples piled on the path wins. You have 15 minutes. Your time starts now. Here's a question for you, Andy. When you get to the locations

where you're going to shoot the day on location, do you look at what you've got on the location and build some tasks around the architecture of the location i mean that's the only thing we do i mean yeah quite often we have ideas for location tasks and we and we take them somewhere and they're fairly straightforward to do sort of anywhere but the best ones i i think are the ones that are um are developed with the places in mind. So Frogmore Paper Mill is a place where they make handmade paper and it has a museum in it and it's a really strange little place tucked along the side of the canal and in

between us we wrecked it and thought, this is a really interesting place to go. And then as we were setting up to try and go there, some horrible people burnt it down. Oh, God. So there was an arson attack and this, I mean, it's so horrible because it's a really lovely place to go and they have school trips. It was one of the exacts from Dave.

No, come on now come on now um uh it's a brilliant place it's like it was like a museum and they have school trips and things like that it's a charity and and we're like oh you know obviously it's a horrible thing and you know what about us but actually what what was great was we were still able to go back there and they were so cool and they let us crash their barge into the wall yeah something i was i was sure something was going to happen because that when jenny hit the wall with that barge you could hear it from space because it was going at such a speed honestly on tv it did not reflect what what we did to that barge and the guys there were just so cool they're like oh it's all right's all right. It's made of metal. Oh, great. So we went along to the watermelon, the paper mill, and you look around

and you look at the various spaces you can work in, and then you work through the different tasks that you have. Hence, what was it last week or the week before? The pulper. The pulper, yeah, the pulper. And then, of of course the potato hat machine as well just yeah

incredible yeah but it's literally it's you know I mean it's it's obviously Alex's brain and the team

who you know help enhance these things as we go through and look we look at those and go right what can we do here and here's five

or six different spaces that we can do things in and uh we also like the um we did the race for the the boat building yeah the egg carrying boat building things like that there so so you sort of design the tasks around the space and you develop tasks in in uh sort of cap in hand with the is that the word cap in hand hand in hand with the uh sort of cap in hand with the, is that the word? Cap in hand?

Hand in hand with the location. Cap in hand is when you're asking for stuff. Yeah, thanks, Ed. It's just because you've got a cap on. Yeah, so those things. And so obviously, you know, you take a look at a mill pond and you decide that you want to throw 10 pineapples in it. Yes, absolutely. And this was a really fun task.

Very tricky. And then it was only when Jenny cut the thread that was tethering the pineapple did I think, well, the only thing to do really, the simplest thing to do is to cut the thread and fucking hold onto the thread, Jenny, and pull it in slowly. Like that's surely,

if you work out that it's attached by a thread, you can pull that pineapple in with the thread and she just cuts it and pull it in slowly. Surely, if you work out that it's attached by a thread, you can pull that pineapple in with the thread and she just cuts it and lets it go. I mean, at least it was flying the right way. You've got to let go of this anger, Ed, honestly. Oh, come on! This is why this podcast is great, because I am angry about people getting things wrong,

even though I would not have thought of that and I would have ended up throwing something at that pineapple and sinking the whole thing. She did brilliantly, though. She did amazingly, yeah. She didn't have to hold on to it. Yeah, she did very well, Andy. Do you know, there's a taskmaster law

where the more complex a task is, or the more sort of work and graft and awkwardness you have to put into trying to set up a task, the less likely it is to work or to make, to be successful and to get onto the show. And one of the really complicated things we did for that task was, you know, there was a candy floss pineapple. Yeah. In the pile of pineapples on the pineapple one made of candy floss

which was sculpted and this basically came about because one of the teams saw you look it up on YouTube it's so beautiful I know exactly what you're going to say Andy so raccoons wash their food so if you give a raccoon

some candy floss they wash it in the water and it just dissolves and they just go crazy yeah so this the whole this whole one of the elements of this was having this you know quite hard to make you know candy floss pineapples and we put on this thing and we tried to get a shot of it falling in the water and we tried to get that reaction you know i mean if ever there's a human being on taskmaster that looks more like a raccoon in pain it's ivo we kind of wanted that moment for that for that it to fall in and for it to dissolve away from them and for them to be sort of completely

perplexed by it yeah you know and see this thing dissolving the water and just um uh be outraged and disgusted and shocked and they just all fell off and dissolved and nobody really noticed you can really say yeah we didn't get a shot of it yeah it was awful it was just one of those things you know we make it real we could have done it as a pickup we could have shot it and seen it and got the reaction but that's not our style instead i just cry to myself at the end of the night and work out what new camera i can get in order to get us that shot next time yeah i'm obsessed with that video of the raccoon so much so in japan we found a bottle of candy floss scented hand sanitizer with a raccoon on the label. So we bought that.

So there you go. I got the reference because we love the video, Andy. And sometimes people like to have fun. Sorry. Sorry, I wasn't, you know. Ivo did what I was expecting Ivo to do, which was immediately try and work out a way of sort of developing stepping stones so he could step uh he could step over the barrier and along to the pineapple um I'd imagine it when people are doing things like that is that when everyone's panicking a little bit that there's going to be a serious injury well but I mean there is you know my

daily constant horrific dilemma where basically him stepping, I mean, he falls over on a flat path. So when he steps over, he's standing in a wobbly wheelbarrow in the middle of a pond that was quite smelly. Yeah. On one hand, you're going, oh, my God, that's so funny. If he falls in, that'd be amazing. on one hand you're going, oh my God, that's so funny. If he falls in, that'd be amazing. On the other hand, I'm looking at the sound man who knows that there's a two grand radio mic in his pocket.

And also we've got other tasks to do. And, you know, if he dies, we might have to recast for the series. So you have all these things going through your head. The series is just genuine. I think we had the best of both worlds in that. Thankfully Ivo stayed dry and nobody died and we could carry on.

But yeah, I mean, it's in those moments. But, you know, we let people do what they want to do and it would be good if none of them died is probably the way of looking at it. Best outcome. Although I'm going to say this again and I've said this on a previous podcast about Ivo. I think his foot goes into the water slightly.

I believe he does get wet, and he should have been disqualified. Again, the anger, Ed. I'm really worried about you. You know, I'm clearly the only guy picking up on these things. I need to be in the edit, because that guy gets his foot in the water, just as his foot came off the spot next to the pulper.

Oh, that's,'s i mean well but i heard that podcast yeah and if your foot is inside a room yes outside the room so come on yeah but the wet this this i think i'm right about this one his foot i'll look back through it but you know there are degrees of wetness when all is said and done I mean you know there's sweat involved he was wetter because of the sweat than he was

because of a little bit of slippage well look unfortunately we don't use the Taskmaster episode titling system for the podcast but if we did

degrees of wetness would definitely be the title of this one but Ivor does a great job it's very sweet when he runs around the corner sees the other pineapples and says I've done it I've done a task master task um but there is a moment where he brings one round and puts it on the plinth and he says I've done it I really panicked

that he was just going to leave it there that he'd misread the task and he thought he only had to put one pineapple on them um so I was very glad that he he actually nailed this i was very proud of him oh he's honestly he's the the torture in every squeal of his voice when he goes like that he is so you know he's so lovely and he's so it's so he's so driven in that you know yeah he's uh he's another you ed he sort of has this this drive this will to win just doesn't have the anger now may let's talk about uh frankie and uh kyle uh i think this sums up frankie and taskmaster uh he does what he can he gets one pineapple uh and then the big reveal of all the other pineapples he strolls straight past them and doesn't even look at them i mean he's he he's happier going to bed at night without the torture of uh knowing what

what he was the lespiri de lescalier as they say yeah i mean what you could have done as you walked away to be fair that is the same reaction he had to ivo when he walked in for the first team task he's saying ivo looks like a pineapple yeah completely oblivious maybe that's it maybe he can't he just can't see things that look like pineapples. But he just played it so cool. It was fantastic to see. But also, I take it he wasn't the first one to film this, because if he was and he walked past those pineapples,

there would have been a moment where you really panicked that the reveal of the extra pineapples wasn't going to work. In my mind, I can probably look that up. He might well have been the first person, actually. I mean, to be honest, the beauty of things like this that we do is that it works either way. Because, again, it's a character thing.

If we were worried that he missed the pineapples as he walked past them, there is more than one way of walking past pineapples and by him missing it and not picking up on it that's as as much of a talking point as if he has a has a meltdown and starts throwing things yes absolutely honestly it's is this thing everything we make the beauty of the show is, I think, that we are able to make anything work in those kind of circumstances. But actually him walking past does us a favour

because if they all walked past and had a meltdown, then it would be dull. We probably wouldn't use it. Yeah. Or, you know, I think it's brilliant that he did it because he walked past with such disregard and such kind of... such lack of care, really.

It was, you know, that helps us, really. It is one of the only shows where, yeah, almost the production team are another character in Taskmaster where if something fails that you guys had set up and it fails in a funny way, you will leave that in. No other show would leave that in,

would be happy for things to go wrong. I'm thinking of specifically there's a there's a studio task in series seven where they had to hang things uh hang things on the line and it just immediately went wrong and everyone came and sat back down again i don't think there's any other show that wouldn't reshoot that yeah yes the giant coat hanger you don't know how many times we tested that we tested it so many times where it was a degree of fixing in the the sort of beam across the coat hanger yeah and you could leave it really loose and it would fall straight away you nail in really hard you could hang a goat off it and it you know so it was this we went back and forth doing this thing but then when phil wang picks up the heaviest thing in the studio, hangs it in the middle of this thing, and it snaps instantly, then it's, you know, it's game over.

But, you know, but I think, you know, it's a strange show, I think. It's a strange programme, but it's joyful that we're able to do that kind of stuff. It's like the permanent marker pens. We did another studio task where there was a thing on a whiteboard, was that series four, where we wrote, part of the studio task was to write on and then wipe off, but we used permanent markers, so...

LAUGHTER Let's talk about May's effort, because they found a way round it, which was drawing their own pineapples and drew 13 pineapples on a sheet of paper and then dropped the pen in the water, which was very funny. I can see why this is allowed but i to me andy there's going to be more anger it's a workaround that is annoying and not satisfying in any way and you know i i've spoken to may about this privately and i made my feelings very clear and what did they say i think

they agreed it's tough ed but also just happy happy that they had the points, to be honest. But yes, I can see why this was allowed because I love the way that May tackles the precedent that Frankie has set with the banana sign. I mean, they are so clever and they're so committed and so switched on because actually it's the banana sign that did it, I think. Yeah.

I think it was, had it not been for the bingo task, I think there would have been a greater distance uphill to push that from getting away with it. Yeah, and Frankie's beautifully succinct philosophy about there's no things, there's only things that they represent. Absolutely amazing. I mean, it's a great bit of TV.

Yeah. Well, Taskmaster's a great philosophical work. It is. That's what I say., Taskmaster's a great philosophical work. It is. That's what I say. And I've got a BA in philosophy, Andy, 2.1. Really? Yes, 2.1. Thank you.

BA in philosophy. So which great philosopher is closest to the world of Taskmaster? Well, it depends, you know, which strand of Taskmaster we're talking about I guess we're here we're way back in the realms of empiricism and those guys we're chatting day cart we're going back to the basics with the things and what they represent

and indeed David Hume so just saying some names I remember May gets five points. Kierkegaard. Ivo gets four points. Jenny gets three points. Kyle gets two points.

And Frankie with the one point. Quick shout out to Kyle's effort because, frankly, the constant sticking of the magnet, you couldn't write a better farce than that. But honestly, Kyle has an ability to make everything everything goes up everything that's vaguely funny goes up five clicks whenever he gets his hands on it and he's just yeah the time the timing of i mean it's again it's it's what we wrote in the first you know as we set out what the series was you know this this sitcom that is taskmaster this sort of kyle and the magnet

scene just was you know played out perfectly you could not have written that better and his time and his face his face when he looks up he's just stuck on it it's just i could watch that all day i just want to remind you that frankie has argued with such passion that the word banana written on a card constitutes a banana. And I will argue that again. A drawing of a pineapple can be called a pineapple. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. LAUGHTER Kyle, wherever you go, I'm ready to follow.

LAUGHTER HE GRUNTS You did very well bringing the prepared pineapples out. It's just whether I allow the drawn pineapples, isn't it? Well, it's not a question. There are several pineapple effigies involved here that aren't really pineapples. They're a bit more real than those drawings.

But all words and images are metaphors for the things they represent. LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE images are metaphors for the things they represent. In no other environment does that sentence get whoops and cheers. Task two, repurpose this umbrella and demonstrate its new purpose. Most inventive repurposing of an umbrella wins. You have 20 minutes. Your time starts now. Am I right in saying, Andy, that this umbrella repurposing task is itself repurposed from a previous series?

Oh, who told you that, Ed? I've got all the inside. It was indeed. I've got the inside track. Yeah, yeah. We tried it in series six and it didn't fly, so we thought we'd have a little go. We still have the umbrellas.

We thought we'd do our bit for the environment and reuse them. Hey, listeners, do you know why it didn't fly? Because Lisa tarbuck couldn't be bothered that day and she couldn't think of anything i think lisa told us about this one actually um she was very open about sometimes there was one task where she just got it and went well i've got nothing and then couldn't do it yeah i mean lisa is she, Lisa was one of the most, yeah. She was the most imaginative and most inventive, but then this one just didn't work for her. I mean, it is interesting because quite a few tasks go by the wayside for various reasons. This one, yeah, it was, I think we

didn't have the faith in it that we might have now in terms of making something work. And so we just let it slide. Actually, we used to shoot a lot more tasks for spares then as well. So by that point, we knew that we were in safe hands with everything else that we needed. I'm glad it came back because it's a fantastic task. And this feels like the right cast to use it with as well. It feels like a creative cast to use it with as well. It feels like a creative cast to throw themselves into these sorts of things.

But we will start with the bottom point, which is Ivo, sadly. This is not him doing a Taskmaster task as it was in the previous task. He mixes cocktails in his umbrella. Not the first time people have chosen to repurpose something as a cocktail mixer uh judy love i believe used the cement mixer uh as a cocktail

mixer in her bar i wonder if that was playing somewhere at the back of ivo's brain while he was panicking to come up with a repurposing uh a repurpose for the umbrella i mean i don't know where i would start with this yeah it was uh it was a sun it was a sunny day it was a sunny day it's time for a drink you know yeah it's a long day you know where else would you want to sort of have half a pint of elderflower with a splash of gin in it but the crucial difference between judy and ivo this sums it up uh when judy did hers she sat down and let Alex mix the cocktail in the cement mixer and drank it herself and Ivo mixed it for Alex while he sat

down and enjoyed it yeah I mean everything in Taskmaster is about character yeah character shown within the first two seconds of every task and it's then displayed throughout the whole of the series yeah I think you know Ivo and Ivo is so supportive and willing and a decent human being he couldn't bear to poison Alex with the other flan so he was very apologetic for that

really wasn't that a bad idea was it? No I don't think it was that bad an idea Greg was harsher on it than I expected but it was a bit sloppy and disastrous and it sort of went everywhere and i i think the fact he didn't break down the umbrella in any way or like reshape the umbrella probably counted against him because everyone else took it apart yeah it was quite a mess he just just used the umbrella you know yeah the first thing you think of, I think lean into it,

make it a cocktail shaker. Yeah. So yeah, it was quite messy. It was, but again, it's a, it's up to Alex for drinking.

Something's been on the floor. He puts the, he put, he put the little umbrella into it. Yeah. Straight in. Alex has put worse things in his mouth on that show. So I think,

I think that's fine. Jenny and Frankie both go with the clothes route. So Jenny turns hers into a house of Eclair Cagoule, the hiking and writing Cagoule, and then just uses the frame to say that she's using it to fend off boys. And Frankie uses the frame as a fascinator, which is what gets him the extra point and turns it into a skirt and again uses it an opportunity to pop his uh pop his socks off get a little bit naked under there all i can see doing that to us was frankie's sock marks yes bands where the top of

his socks were look like tattoos yeah his socks are too tight if there's anything we've learned from this series and that he should take forward is that his socks are too tight but i do agree it's that thing again of it is brilliant how readily frankie has made himself look silly on this show and it's just really has really gone for it well you know it's a question of the degrees to which you say someone looks silly i mean he's fully committed to it he got straight into it he was completely completely at home with it yes his calmness and his his uh security is um makes him the perfect uh team member to go with Ivo in terms of teams of opposites where you know his his sort of he's he's he would walk through fire not noticing it with his socks off and not flinch

he'd walk straight through a fire and come out unscathed and as cool as you like and make a really good joke about it as he comes out the door while Ivo stands at the side of the fire going Frankie I'm not sure that's a very good idea Frankie but it was a lovely

that's exactly what I did it was a lovely skirt and fascinator combo and I enjoyed Jenny's cagoule as well it was certainly more fashion forward than Frankie's but if you're talking about repurposing I suppose an umbrella to cagoule doesn't feel like too much of a repurpose so she probably deserved one less point

than Frankie's fantastic fascinator I thought she looked good it was a very practical move very stylish but the top two certainly repurposed way more and way more inventively. May made the Border Broly called Bosco and even gave it a little voice. And it had so much character. I mean, to make that in 20 minutes and manage to evoke so much character within an umbrella dog, I thought it was just, it was fantastic.

It's the power of Gaffer and her staple gun, I think, is the killer of that. And it's, you know, I mean, I did wince at the board of Broly, but it's very good. It was very good. And the way it wagged its head and its tail at the same time and it moved across things, it was, yeah. I mean, they are so good at making something fully committing to it and uh it's i suppose it's the same trait as frankie

where there's a level of uh unquestioning the unquestioning nature of what they do they deliver something that is that is just so and deal with it and give you some points. In an utterly charming way, but they are so convincing and so committed and sort of straight away as well. There's not much hanging around. There is straight into something. It just goes on and it's there. And they make something that nails the points. I thought Bosco was fantastic.

The tail being the handle and the head moving, just fantastic. And Kyle's, of course, brilliant as well. A duck catcher because he uses the tartan umbrella. is fantastic the tail being the handle and the head moving with just fantastic and uh kyle's of course brilliant as well uh a duck catcher because he uses the tartan umbrella so it's got the scottish theme accents i think this is one of his highlights of the series just turning it into a whole scene is there's no need to do that but he just created to demonstrate the purpose but he just creates a whole story think of it yeah to instantly think of it and and then but also to make it up as you go along i mean yeah i think we we cut cut that down quite hard we had to cut that down quite hard anyway because you know i think it was an hour and a

half he did that whole scene he did the whole braveheart being acted in front of the shed yeah he knows it he could have carried on yeah it got to lunchtime so we had to sort of move along but you know instantly came up with this madness and just went for it. It was so good. Yeah, it was fantastic. And I think they were both very good. I feel like, you know, you've got to give one more point. But I think either of them could have been the top there.

I enjoyed watching both of them. I'm so glad this task was repurposed. It was five points for Kyle, four points for May, three points for Frankie, two points for Jenny and one point for Ivo's cocktail umbrella. It's been a long day at work. I can't wait to sit down and put my feet up. Pause.

Hang on a minute. That's my family. What's happened? I can't hear you. Hang on. What's that? Bread? I want to save my family, but the bread's so beautiful. It's a trap! Oh, no! I'm trapped! And I didn't get any of the bread! Oh, no! I'm trapped! And I didn't get any of the bread!

Oh, no! Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! The duck catcher! That's a time-out, Coyle. Duck for dinner! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Task three. Put the most stuff on top of this jelly without breaking the jelly.

If anything other than the jelly touches the duck, you are disqualified. Heaviest stuff on the jelly exactly ten minutes from now wins. Let's quickly talk about this, Andy. Is on top of touching? Does it have to be touching to be on top of? Very good question. It's open to interpretation, isn't it, Ed? It is, but of course...

I can see the anger in your eyes. No, it's not anger. I'm just interested. This is... I'm delving in. I'm delving in. This is about language. Because Jenny, of course, sits on top of a box which is

above the jelly but does that mean she is therefore on top of the jelly or as greg says is she on top of a box not on top of the jelly is it below the jelly well the jelly is below her she is above the jelly but the the task says put the most off on top of this jelly is she on top or atop? And indeed, is there a difference? If you put a stack of 10 books on the table, the book that's at the top is on top of the other books. If we were in bunk beds and I was on the top bunk...

Big if. Thank you. Would I be on top of you or would my bunk bed have to break and I would fall onto you and then I am on top of you? Tricky, isn't it? I mean, I think you're definitely on top of me. I mean, I think that's, you know... If I'm in the bunk bed.

In relative terms, you're on top. So Jenny should... She the bottom who's on the top yeah so jenny should have got more points but she didn't use the bunk bed argument that's her biggest failing throughout the series i think you've always got to use the bunk bed argument you've got to use the argument yeah it was a good attempt from jenny i'm glad someone tried it anyway, because everyone else just goes with putting things directly on the top. Or not, in Ivo's case. Yeah, or not, in Ivo's case. So Ivo tries to... I see what he's doing with the foam bricks,

trying to hem in the jelly to stop it breaking, but then piles bricks on and then puts six bananas on top and the jelly breaks immediately. But nothing touches the duck. I that the duck thing slightly confusing because if anything other than jelly touches the duck you're disqualified nothing touched the duck uh for ivo but he did damage the jelly and still got naught points did the bananas not touch the must i don't think they did i know i think if you look at the footage, the jelly simply unravels around the duck. I mean, we'll have obviously analysed every frame of his head.

Yeah, well, you didn't analyse his foot going in the wheelbarrow full of water. So, you know, I've got your back here. Look, I'm sure someone will get in contact with me on Twitter and tell me I'm wrong. And that's normally what happens on this podcast. If the duck is exposed and the jelly's taken off it, then something's going to come in touch with the duck. What air, I suppose. Well, it would have been smushed off by the air.

Yeah, but I think there's an impact and then the jelly unfurls. But never mind. May balances a record, a box, a bag uh and some glasses uh but the jelly breaks good technique from may but i think this is where their um intelligence uh practically didn't pay off because they were going for a wide surface area which was good and then they just went a little bit a little bit overboard on the things they put on top of the record but i think I would have ended up doing something similar that jelly would have been smashed immediately I mean

it's a wobbly jelly it's a wobbly jelly it's a delicate balance exactly that works Kael goes for a similar technique but he holds back a little bit and that's why it works because chopping board, bowl, cut with sugar in it and the duck doesn't get. He goes, chopping board, bowl, cut with sugar in it,

and the duck doesn't get touched. Four points for Kyle. Very impressive. But let's talk about this. That's because his hatred for lemon jelly. His hatred for anything edible in Taskmaster. So I'm thinking also about the jelly babies. I think they were jelly babies, were they? Gummies in the escape room S task,

where they were all chained together. He refused to eat them. He licked the the end of one and he looked absolutely disgusted he just wouldn't eat any of them no i mean but you know as this is one again it's the character it's it's it's how someone wants to approach something i think if you've got certain lines you don't want to step over you should stick to your guns and stay to it they were were, I mean, they were one of the rankest things we've ever had. Yeah. Broccoli, broccoli gummy was pretty, seaweed, I think. There's all the seaweed in it.

Yeah. Bacon and kale. So, yeah. I know that's quite good. That was a good one. To be honest, I've been to restaurants that serve things like that, and I'd sit there and say I like it. So I probably would have enjoyed it. um big big swerve from frankie he writes uh he writes a heavy note about the

destruction of the universe and put it on top this this feels like the sort of thing that greg would go for this feels like rod gilbert in series seven drawing a circle around a map of the world and saying he'd drawn the biggest circle scale wise this this feels like a good uh thinking outside the box i think i mean i think we discussed this sort of obviously we sort of go through and sometimes vaguely predict what people might do or anticipate what people might do and i think we could have easily had money on frankie doing this in that yeah way and he did it you know he did it with such thought and such deliberate calculation. It sort of felt really...

It just feels so poetic when he reads it. Yeah. I'm really depressed watching that in a good way. Yes. I mean, of course, I would have played the heaviest metal that I have on my phone and popped that on top. Can't clear it.

Oh, yeah. Or I would have... Well, if I'd had a record in my bag, I phone and pop that on top can't clear it oh yeah or I would have well if I'd had a record in my bag I could have put that on uh but yes can't clear it that would have been but in that situation if I said I'm going to do this would you have said we can't clear that do something else or would you have said do that and then we'll just talk about it uh we'd have we'd have made it work in the best way we possibly could have done. I mean, it's a good, if awkward at some times, discipline in terms of having to have things that are flexible for transmission. So it's one of those things where we don't want to stop people from doing things and we find ways around it.

I mean, I think for the wedding dance task yeah um i can't remember someone saying oh yeah it's because they can't clear the music they're just being cheapskate and stuff like that actually that that task was made by the fact that you couldn't hear the music they're dancing to because i think the the sort of listening to the the breaths and the sort of the yelps and the squelches of people doing that doing that those dances was way better than anything we could have cut together with them jumping around it's so much funnier it's so much funnier watching them dance silently because it is funny watching people dance at a silent disco if you don't have the headphones on it's always funny and if you just saw people

doing a silly dance to a song then immediately the comedy's almost completely taken out of it. Yeah. So, no. I think it's finding ways around. So, you know, I mean, we're really lucky because we've got a brilliant composer who goes nuts over such things. So we could have found some way around it,

doing something or other. Yes. You know, we would have made it work. I would have won. I would have won. To avoid the anger. Five points for Frankie, four points for Kyle, one point for Jenny, nought points for Ivo,

and nought points for May. You don't get much heavier than this. The third law of thermodynamics means that the universe will eventually enter a phase of heat death with all life and all energy extinguished. One, two, three. They're off. They're off. They're off. So, this is as far as I can go.

Ah! far as I can go you were on it when the whistle went yeah and the jelly's fine jelly's fine thanks for sitting on the jelly jelly it's no problem I enjoyed it this clubs that cater this kind of thing you are thank you the live task using only the scratching post to remove as many balls from your

suit as possible your teammates may throw balls from the throwing spots throughout the throwing spots may not be moved fewest balls on a

suit after two minutes wins also if you're in a team of three the two non-suit wearers must hold hands throughout the two minutes

it's a big it's a big set up this one what we've what we've seen a lot of we've seen a good mix in this series I think of these ones where there's a big it's a big setup this one what we've what we've seen a lot of uh we've seen a good mix in this series i think of these ones where there's a lot of equipment and rules and things like that but then the simple ones where you don't know what's going to happen even you

guys it have just just shone so i'm thinking specifically about the uh the one from last week which was the impressions and the accents uh and walk, everyone doing Jenny Eclair's walk, which I think is possibly one of my favourite things that's happened in this series. I mean, honestly, it's the blessing that we have that we have opportunities to set people up to do madness. Yeah. I think one of the reasons the show works is because

there's freedom for great people to do great things and the sort of circumstance the ways in which i mean well it's the the um the noise the noise monster from uh series 12 yeah the wow those moments where the wow monster sorry yeah um you have those you have those moments where things come from you know know, on paper, something looks slightly, you know, and in our testing, it's often we do quite a few things and it's like, it'll be all right when we get, you know, the cast doing it, you know. I was going to say proper people, but there is a level that goes up when you're in the zone and you're under the lights

and the stress of something, you you go off on one i mean you know i think the the the series is an opportunity for people to sort of level up and what they do and the sort of particularly late on the series when you've got those it's only those five people who go through this set of circumstances so they're in the sort of they have this this camaraderie in this sort of um togetherness that makes them you know it's a comedy ensemble they sort of yeah they can level up in that way you know the confidence that they have uh sitting side by side with each other for all these records enables that kind of stuff you know the simpler things are so often the best when when they come to that kind of that kind of time yes this one was this but this one it's massive extravagance yeah it's one of those things like i say i'm i'm always worried when we

have a big setup because the more money you spend the more more time you spend sometimes it doesn't always reap rewards but i think this one worked really well i mean genius of uh kyle and jenny to do the um the opposing hands yes yeah very clever very very clever just you know didn't think of that one but you know it probably only gave them about three more you know but yeah well it was important it was an important way for them to win the five points because uh there were 17 balls left on may ivan frankie left uh had 29 balls uh left on frankie and Frankie had 29 balls left on Frankie. And obviously, you know some things are going to go right when you put Frankie in a Velcro jumpsuit.

You don't know the suit's going to pop open. Pop open and then he starts rubbing up and down the pole like a pole dancer. Completely naked. Glorious to the world. So luckily, Velcro held. Yeah, the comment of I just wish I had

a few less joke scandals and I wouldn't be in this situation, just so great I mean the show is you know it's a visual show the whole idea of it is to make tasks and comics very visual and the idea

Frankie standing there alone not alone in the studio but next to a raffia pole in a jumpsuit covered with balls lovely lasting images for us all fantastic so it was Kyle's episode 20 points for Kyle

May a solid performance from them 18 points this is the things that matter. If you're not winning an episode, you want to be coming second or third. Jenny on 16 points. Frankie also on 16 points. Ivo, despite having won some episodes,

if he's not winning, he's coming bottom, which is a disastrous technique. May is out in front on 143 points. Her closest competitor is Kyle on 128. Then we're quite closely closely grouped jenny on 122 frankie on 120 and ivo languishing on 103 normally we ask for predictions for the winner andy but you know obviously uh so we're not going to ask you i couldn't share any i mean look it's all to play for there's still still 50 points left i guess yeah if you let if you had that

all out there's still to play for two whole episodes. Ivo could still have his time. But May doesn't feel like a contestant who would have a disaster at this point. That's all I'm saying, Andy. You don't need to say anything. I know you know. Yeah, but do you know what? You know what these production teams are like.

They might have just saved all the nightmare tasks, constructed it so that everything goes to hell in the last two episodes just to make some headlines and controversies. Yeah. Might have all, you know, might have five, ten tasks coming up where they score one point or get disqualified ten times in a row. Yeah, you devious writers. Before I get you to rate the podcast, Andy, here's another question for you.

Is there any way we could work out a way of me doing Taskmaster again in some form please are you crying Ed? yes I am this time I mean you can never say never Ed

yeah that's not good enough for me can never say never and only sometimes say maybe yeah alright okay I'll take that uh andy we always sorry honestly i'm so genuinely sorry but you know you're sitting there you know dressed like a rapper with your with your golden head behind you yes in your luxury pad with your

jacuzzi behind you sipping on an vo cocktail yeah straight out the umbrella yeah no it's gone all right isn't it um thank you so much for coming on the podcast Andy we always of course ask our guests to rate their experience on the podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster I hope you've had a nice time but what what point score would you give it that's a I mean it's probably a tough one but look with that stare you're giving me it's got to be five points obviously thank you andy um well i can't wait to come back on the show in some form i've just remembered what there might well be a way in which you feature in an episode of taskmaster what not just my voice no you will appear on taskmaster again Ed oh this series is that this series yeah all right

okay well there you go that's not exactly what yeah I want it to happen you've got to be you've got to keep your eye out though right oh yeah you've got to really watch like a hawk. Do you remember what episode that's in? Yeah. In 10. In 10. Right, okay. You've really got to keep your eyes out, everyone, in 10.

There may be another appearance. We'll see. Thank you so much, Andy. We're loving this series. We cannot wait for even more. Of course, it is the machine that never stops. Thank you so much, Andy. Bye-bye.

Thanks, Ed. Take care. even more of course it is the machine that never stops uh thank you so much andy bye-bye thanks ed take care thank you so much to andy for coming on to the show lovely to chat to andy as always what we didn't talk about is if you watched um celebrity hunted uh that me and james acaster took part in andy was my getaway driver we stayed in in the Taskmaster house and James got caught. Spoilers. And I ran away from the Taskmaster house because Andy was waiting for me in his car. So he's a wonderful man, very busy with Taskmaster,

but not so busy that he can't help an illegal person on the lam get to, I mean, Hammersmith. He didn't mean to Hammersmith. Thank you very much for listening. We'll be back next week to discuss series 15 episode 9

it will be dropping straight after the show which is of course 9pm on channel 4 10pm come straight here to wherever you listen to your podcasts

and listen to us discuss it with a special guest thank you very much bye bye Every veteran has a story. Whatever your next chapter, get support with health, education, finance, and more. At veterans.gc.ca slash services. A message from the Government of Canada.