Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 26. Katherine Parkinson - S11 Ep.3

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

This week on the podcast Ed is joined by actor, writer and Series 10 contestant, Katherine Parkinson. As well as discussing the new line up and this week's tasks they go back to Series 10 and talk about Katherine's time on the show - expect chat about clay masks, marble runs, spiders and THAT fart noise. You can watch Series 11 of Taskmaster each Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm.Watch Taskmaster Bleeped on All 4Get in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail] Visit the Taskmaster Youtube channelwww.youtube.com/taskmaster For all your Taskmaster goodies visit www.taskmasterstore.com  Taskmaster the podcast is produced by Daisy Knight for Avalon Television Ltd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those, too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast TMP. I'm Ed Gamble, I am your host and we are chatting about series 11 of Taskmaster. It's the series that's currently airing on channel 4 every Thursday at 9pm. Today we're talking about series 11 episode 3. So if you haven't watched it yet, go and watch it then come

back listen to this and hear us pick it away at it deconstruct it have a good laugh about it have a chat have a giggle with my special guest who this week is Catherine Parkinson Catherine of course you'll know from many brilliant performances in comedy roles in serious roles alike but also if you're listening to this you'll be a Taskmaster fan you'll know her from series 10 of Taskmaster where she I mean look she was a brilliant brilliant contestant and I use brilliant in terms of entertainment not necessarily in tackling the tasks in the best way she had a fair few disasters which I'm sure we will chat to her about but very excited to have Catherine on the podcast this week.

Go and watch the episodes. Taskmaster is on all four. Of course it is. Every single episode on there right up until this one. If you have little kids who you don't want to hear rude things, the bleeped versions are also available on all four. It's called Taskmaster bleeped. Go ahead and watch those. If you don't want to hear about all bums and front stuff uh go on taskmaster store

go on the taskmaster youtube channel for extras uh there is a particular extras clip uh from series 10 that i can't wait to ask katherine about uh so don't miss out on all that lovely taskmaster content youtube.com forward slash Taskmaster going by the board game from the Taskmaster store you can buy all sorts of merch but the main thing is watch the show and listen to us chat about it so without further ado let's have a chat to Catherine Barkinson about series 11 episode 3. Welcome Catherine to the Taskmaster podcast. Oh thank you for having me. It is, we're very very happy to have you, a contestant on season 10 of course, so not that far gone. I suppose it's a while ago for you but in terms of the viewers, you've not been long off the screens.

been long off the screens no and it feels like a fresh experience still in my mind um you know i'm still sort of recovering i was going to say the way you said fresh experience there didn't necessarily uh give it a qualitative level of it was a nice experience or a good experience it was a positive trauma so okay so sort of like a the sort of thing they did in like 70s experiments yeah yeah exactly that you know ultimately it was a good thing but it was quite painful on the way anything particularly painful from your time on Taskmaster that stands out? No I mean you know what I absolutely loved Every Minute I do think that having watched you know the new bunch and previous bunches we did all seem quite hysterical and I think that's probably because we were you know in the throes early throes of the pandemic, because I just remember, I mean, that really is quite significant because I think we hadn't seen other people. Because I just do remember us all being quite out of control with laughing, which, you know, I don't want to look indulgent.

I don't want to look indulgent. It was just laughing as is a hysterical and hysterical response to stress. And I think that's kind of, it was sort of a breakdown that was going on for all of us. But I did love it. That's definitely true of certainly the first two episodes, which I guess would be the first day of filming in the studio. I think all of you were in tears of laughter most of the time. We were. And, you know, just to reassure any viewers out there,

I did, you know, when you put your name into Google and they have suggested search ideas that come up. And since the show, katherine parkinson mental health is i i i just want to reassure any concerned people that um well i mean you know that you're fine i really enjoyed myself i really enjoyed myself even though though I looked like I was having a really bad time and crying. It was tears of laughter. And I love nothing more than celebrating my incompetence. It's my favourite thing.

So it was all great. Googling it is funny, though. Just going like, is she all right? I better just Google it and see if she's OK. Oh, God. is funny though just going like is she all right i better just google it and see if she's okay oh god uh i do understand you know i poured water into a net ed you know i mean yeah to gather it uh but yeah to gather the water you weren't trying to wet the net you were trying to gather the water i was yeah and i can't pretend i was putting on an act or you know i thought oh shall i i thought about pretending it was a different actress i look i look a bit like a

few other actresses and then i thought oh i'll pretend it was all an act but none of that's true anyone that knows me knows how chaotic i am the the front is pretending i'm not you see so yes but you know i had a great time. The only thing that hurt my feelings a little bit was Greg's response to my clay masks. Well, this came up. Obviously, we asked for emails on this podcast and people knew that you were coming on the podcast.

And we did have quite a few emails asking about the clay masks and whether you were all right after greg made fun of your clay masks well i mean i'm all right and he did apologize on camera and off but i haven't made any since and oh no great well you know greg's greg's kind of got to live with that um and he's he crushed your spirit well i think he did a bit I mean the thing is I was making so many um at the time of doing I mean I was doing probably like one a day you know that's a lot and and then after that recording I I haven't I've got a lot of Daz clay sitting around still and it's all remained unopened. I'm not, you know, it's fine.

But there was a bit of genuine hurt there, I'm afraid. Because they are, some of them are quite good. Some of them have artistic merit. Look, I like the clay masks, but that felt like a genuine moment of tension in the studio because there was a moment where greg stopped making fun of you and just started saying they were really good and then at the end richard was like holding them up because he won the episode going it's really good so sweet what

a lovely dear thing to do i really appreciated that um and quite like somebody from the art department came up afterwards and said by the way way, those clay masks, some of them are really good. It was almost it was the pity that made it worse, actually, because people sort of, you know, reassuring me that some of them were quite good. Yeah, I don't need that. I'm an artist. And, you know. Well, it turns out you did need some reassurance because you've not made any sense. I haven't, no. But, I mean, it might be because I've moved on to acrylics.

Oh, OK, sure. Yes. Are there any tasks that stick out in your mind as your favourite tasks, whether you did well in them or not? Well, I do... Well, the catapult the shoe into the bath sticks out. catapult the shoe into the bath uh sticks out um just the sort of the shame of you know not knowing what a catapult is and you know i just i read a lot of the bino as a kid and yeah i just couldn't stop thinking of the y-shaped twig um and um but the one i was really proud of that i don't actually think kind of had quite the impact I'd hoped that I thought would save my performance really on it was my marble run, which, you know, in the room, you had to really be in the room because it was really magical.

And we were all pretty spellbound and kind of there was a bit of a sort of eerie mood for a while after that sort of an awe awestruck mood because it was you know i was so pleased with myself with the marble run yeah no i didn't have an impact do you think so i think so i've i've written i've written it down in my notes to talk about your marble run because i thought it was incredible i thought it was beautiful it was like you almost invented a perpetual motion machine i i that's exactly what i was yes but i didn't it didn't feel like it went on as long on the show as it did in the room you know i felt like it went on and on and on but it was like i only went sort of three times but it's all right you still won i think you won that task i did win that task he was very nice and very fair that task but unfortunately it couldn't it did

you think that the marble run would make people forget maybe the times that you slipped up like the wetting the net and dressing the table as a as a spider oh yeah I forgot that yeah yeah I did I kind of thought if I'm honest with you Ed I thought that everyone would come away thinking I was like a sort of outside the box genius on the basis of the bubble run but um when I watched the show I realized that but you know there were so many awful um performances in the tasks that from me that it just it didn't touch the sides um were you a fan were you a fan of Taskmaster before uh before you did it had you watched it before I hadn't and I met the producer Andy and I was doing something with him

and um I I was aware of it and I and I knew it was probably a show I I would enjoy but I you know I've got young children and I and I've done a lot of theatre the last couple of years, so I actually have only watched box sets. I got into the show after I'd been on it, which is often, I like to do my research after the job quite often, and loved it. And I also, I'd just done Travelman with Joe Lycett, which hasn't gone out yet. Oh, great.

And had just loved him him and he said it was one of the most fun things he'd done and now i can't get enough of it i've watched loads of it on youtube and obviously have watched this series uh for the purposes of this podcast and um it's an inspired show isn't it and it it really is just lovely to watch. And I think, I have to say, I was a fan of Greg's before, but the way he takes funny material and then spins it into even funnier material is, you know, just marvellous to watch.

And him and Alex are a great team. Yeah. He's one of the, Greg's one of the great deconstructors especially on Taskmaster he can see something and he can break it all down to its funniest components and sort of really highlight what's funny about it and bring his own spin to it as well absolutely because he's because he was a teacher and you can absolutely see he was a teacher there's a sort of authenticity to his kind of pose. And I just think that really, you really want to please him.

It's absolutely pathetic, isn't it? But he is like that teacher that you want to please. Do you think it's a different prospect doing Taskmaster for an actor versus a comedian? Yeah, I mean, the difference for me, you know, I've done comedy as an actress but I have deliberately avoided panel shows and things because I'm not a stand-up and I just sort of think that I like watching stand-ups on you know those sorts of shows but would I lie to you is

sort of different things it's a parlor game and I really enjoyed doing that a couple of times. And basically, I was persuaded to do Taskmaster because I knew it was celebrating incompetence. And so I don't really, I mean, I also feel, I suppose that I'm a bit older now, so I don't really care um as much about preserving mystique which I did actually like hilariously try to do for a while so well also because I the fear of being funny you know I remember I remember eight out of ten cats I remember a friend one did it and said it was the most terrifying thing he'd done because as an actor you know

it is out of your comfort zone but I didn't feel that on Taskmaster at all because you're engaged with the task and there's not a pressure you're not trying to be funny you're trying to do the task that is I I did I did enjoy in the there was an acting task in your series where you had to play multiple different parts and I really like the true professional actor of going well I'm not going to learn these lines because I've got loads of other lines in my head so I'll be doing this as I wish thank you no I'm sure that looked a little bit grand but the fact is it was no it didn't it looked like it looked like you had it looked like you had other work where you needed to have the lines in your head I thought that was

actually quite interesting it was it was particularly a lot of lines it was um sort of you know it was a lot of lines and i just and they knew i was they knew i was learning it in between the tasks so i just went there no no no it's the worry that the the lines from the task would have infiltrated the lines for the play so you would have ended up pretending to be a Scottish policeman during a royal court performance yeah I think I might have but exactly and then you know I definitely have a finite amount of brain space I've definitely discovered that over the years what's it like watching a new line-up? Because like you say, I think you've watched this one and you're just going to start to catch up on it now. But is it weird looking at a fresh bunch of faces

after you've just finished yours? I mean, the thing is, they're all so likeable. I do think the Taskmaster team do a very clever job of not getting the obvious people and getting people that are, well, I mean, don't want to be presumptuous, but pretty affable, you know, in weird and different ways. And I do feel very lucky with the people that I had on the show because I honestly loved every single one of them. I mean, because of the situation, we didn't get to have a drink and a cuddle like you would normally.

But I do just think, I mean, Richard Herring, just his ability to laugh at himself is so endearing and winning. And Mawaan's got like the most extraordinary brain. Even the helium in the egg, I thought, was inspired and is just lovely. Everyone knows how lovely Johnny is and what a poet and what an artist and what a sort of original brain he's got. And Daisy, I just don't think there's anybody funnier than Daisy in the world.

So part of the reason I was in a sort of really unattractive state of, you know, just pulling awful faces, laughing all the time was because of her. Because I just find her absolutely hilarious. No, it was a particularly strong lineup, I think. And like you say, in the sort of in the time it was on tv people were people were needing something fun and uh gentle and friendly and silly and i think it was one of the one of the friendliest lineups that have been on the show yeah but then this lineup feels sort of just as lovely you know uh slightly um less hysterical but but but all the better for it um i think um i mean they mean, they're just all, and very different. And it's really enjoyable trying to work out what sort of brains they've got.

And, you know, often getting it wrong. But I think they're all lovely. I feel like Jamali might be a little bit similar to me in that I'm sensing he hasn't watched the show before. I mean, I was reassured it was a good thing a good thing not to watch it it was going to make me kind of be fresh you know but actually I think I would have maybe done better if I had watched it because I would have known the rules a bit more the reason I sense that is because he's trying to enlist Alex as a little helper which I did and I think that's kind of because he hasn't watched it

but I think the I think the difference there is that quite often when you asked Alex to help he did he did help you he he did feel like he could help it and step in with Jamali he's less he resists a little bit more which because he I think he instinctively knows that it's going to annoy Jamali and That's funny. And he's telling him to hurry up because of time and stuff. I like that. Do we have any balloons? Balloons?

Balloons? Yeah. Can I get one? I'll get you a balloon. Yeah, can I get a balloon? What colour? Any colour. Are you coming with me?

I mean, with the fingers, it's a time thing and you're not going very fast. Oh, are you chasing me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can just step it up please thank you um let's let's talk about let's talk about the prize task in this episode then uh it's the most shocking thing that's bigger than a cat and smaller than a pig um a ridiculously specific uh

specific prize task did you have any any instincts as soon as they said that what what you might have brought in um first of all just like to say that i really noticed alex's haircut at the top but he must have been like sort of had that haircut seconds before the show started filming because it's so sort of like new isn't it um and my other thought watching it was gosh they do just keep the same props in the garage and things don't they the shed yeah they really do change the props according to the tasks yeah um they add they add stuff they add stuff to it until it's a big pile of like junk in the shed so you really have to root around to find stuff but yeah as far as i know they don't change anything series to series right because you see again because i haven't watched it i thought oh they've put this in the shed it must be because they want me to do this,

which, again, may have contributed to the... ..the poorness of my performances and tasks. I thought Charlotte's prize task idea was probably the sort of thing I would have gone for. I didn't think she got enough credit for that. So, hang on, let's dig down into that into that so Charlotte bought a big bucket of ice um and why do you think she deserved more for that because if you were talking about actually what what in what leads to the most shock I think that would probably if you actually did a kind of control experiment

um I think that would be the most shocking thing. She didn't sell it very well, I guess. I think you could probably, like the way you sold it there is better than, I think she just went, big bucket of ice, and Greg just moved on straight away. She left Greg too much of a gap to do that joke of ignoring her straight away. But it's the sort of thing, isn't it, that Greg might have gone for on another day. He's quite unpredictable with that. You never know if he's going to love that sort of thing, isn't it, that Greg might have gone for on another day. He's quite unpredictable with that. You never know if he's going to love that sort of thing.

Yeah, I quite like that unpredictability, though. I also was very intrigued by Mike's one, you know, the sort of Dartmoor artist. I spend a lot of time near Dartmoor myself, and I'd love to know the name of this artist and see the... I was actually a little bit disappointed not to see, like, a photo of the original.

And I think it wasn't his fault. I felt for him that it had all been destroyed. I really felt for him. But it is funny that they... Because I think in any other series they would have found that that was smashed up and they would have quickly found something else for Mike to bring in, right?

Rather than just let him bring in a box of smashed up glass. But in Taskmaster, authenticity is everything. So they've gone, well, you're just going to have to go with that, Mike, I'm afraid. But, you know, when they did say what the scene was, it was genuinely quite shocking and arousing. So, you know, I thought, what was it? It was something like a deer licking on or something. I've got it here.

It was alpaca shaved in flagrante delicto with gecko frenzied as Robin Redbreast looks on impassively. Yeah, that's really sexy. So, you know, I don't know if it's true. What's really sexy about that is the impassive Robin. Yeah, the impassive Robin. The cigarette. Impassivity, yeah.

You've added the cigarette, Catherine. See, if anything, maybe it's better than it's smashed. It's better than it's smashed because then, you know, people can imagine it in their minds and it's even more shocking in the brain, I'd imagine. Well, in a way, that's a piece of art too, isn't it? As an artist, I can see the value of a smashed kind of art piece. But no, I liked the idea of a smashed kind of art piece but no i liked i liked um the idea of his one um

i thought jamali was rather well scored for for what he brought in him no not even a small no yeah no it was the right size motorbike it was yeah it was the right size because he'd remembered the size yeah he'd remembered the size and concentrated so much on getting the right size that he'd forgotten the shocking bit um i think he could have argued it like cut a little wire on it or something to say it would have given you an electric shock but this sums up jamali that it was just like look i've brought you that i brought you the right size just get on with it and he got he got three points he said he'd settle for three points and it works you see i think i i think if i was greg i'd have a bit of a soft spot already for jamali

because he's got that sort of cheeky you know I imagine when he was a teacher it's that sort of you know when he sort of does a does an impression of him at one point and he says I didn't speak like that yeah because we're you know the first two episodes Jamali was very cheeky with Greg and quite antagonistic and I think Greg was taken aback maybe the first couple of episodes but now I think they've sunk into quite a nice relationship quite a nice back and forth where it is properly like a teacher and a naughty student relationship

it's really nice I kind of wish I'd gone for that sort of approach I don't think I would have pulled it off you know just a bit more spunk as they say in Neighbours I agree with the mini motorbike though that should not have got the three points A bit more kind of, a bit more spunk, as they say in Neighbours. Yeah. You know? I agree with the mini motorbike, though.

That should not have got the three points. I think Jamali did some kind of Jedi mind trick on Greg there. Yeah. But it got the same amount of points as Sarah's toy donkey. I couldn't quite work this out. So was she saying that is a toy donkey and then her friend said that you could use one end as a butt plug and then two people sitting on the ears? Or is that what it was actually for?

That's what I couldn't work out. Yeah, and then I sort of couldn't work it out. So does that mean two people sit on the ears using the ears as butt plugs too? I mean, I had to really sort of visualise it to see how shocking it is. But no, I like the approach being you take a child's toy and make it, but I felt like Alex

really surprised me with, did he use the word flange? Flanged end. He said the tail had a flanged end. Yeah. It's not, normally Alex blushes at that sort of thing, doesn't he? No, I know. He doesn't really like sort of filthy humour. I was shocked by him. of filthy humor a bit let down a bit let down um flanged end yes i mean i i thought i saw where she was going with that but i think kind of lee slightly trumped it with the um

strange old man's head on a dog's body yeah not nice i thought that thought that it could have been more shocking if... I think because the dog's body was too sweet. It was like a cute, fluffy dog and a horrible baby's head. But maybe the contrast is what made it shocking. Oh, yeah. Sweet baby's head would be better. Well, it didn't really look like a baby's face to me at all. If you actually look at that face, it like a sort of an old man's face yeah

yeah you wouldn't if that was your baby you'd be worried wouldn't you you would be yeah i was thinking no one no one exploited the electric shock angle oh yeah yeah yes so i was i was thinking yeah of like loads of to make it the right size loads of extension plugs and blocks all plugged into each other because you're not supposed to do that and build that up to the size of a, yeah, bigger than a cat, smaller than a pig sort of thing. Yeah, that's really good.

That's really good. Yeah, we've sort of gone straight for shocking as in sort of mixing, sort of offensive, offending our morals shocking or temperature shocking. But yeah, like electrocution kit sort of thing would have been interesting. Yeah. Or just like a quite detailed painting of Greg and Alex going at it.

They're easy to get hold of, I've heard. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Do you know what? I'll settle with three points. Will you? Yeah. I'll settle with four, actually.

I'll say we cut it even. Just give me three points and then we're good. Can we all say now what we'll settle with three points. Will you? Yeah. I'll settle with four, actually. I'll say we cut it even. Just give me three points, and then we're good. Can we all say now what we'll settle with? I'll settle with four. I think me deserves five. Yeah, I'll settle with five. I'll go without. Bye-bye! It's winter, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything.

So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. 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. Or we can demand from indigenous 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 slash write the future. Well, let's talk about the first task then uh make the sauna stones hiss you must be standing behind the rope when the stones hiss you may not move the stones or the rope you may not use a hose i don't know how this is one where i'm like did they buy the sauna stones and then work out a task around that or did they come up with that task and then buy the sauna stones?

It's a weird one, isn't it? Yeah. Interesting. Well, I like this task, though. I liked it. And I like the way he presented the task as a towel around the shoulder, like Dexter from Dynasty. Yeah.

But I know I wouldn't have found the task. If that had been me, that would have just been it. We would have just been there till lunch. And my first thought was that I would try to spit. So there you are. I mean, it's quite a distance. I know. Do you think you could have gotten close? Are you a good spitter? No, I'm not.'s quite a distance. I know. Do you think you could have got close?

Are you a good spitter? No, I'm not. I'm really not. My older brother used to endlessly try and teach me to spit. But I just, you know, that was my first instinct. And it's often good to go with your first instinct. Sorry, Catherine, you can't say things like my older brother endlessly used to try and teach me how to spit greenies greenies he tried to teach me to do greenies okay in the 80s and i

cannot i can't get it up i can't get greeny stuff up i'm not saying that to sort of sound more feminine i'm just saying i do not have enough qatar green sputum to collect it in my gullet like he used to and then project it across the room and I tried and I just had clear sort of watery spit just dribble down my chin anyway so in this task

I mean it might have cost you a bit of time but you would have had to get your brother to the house to spit for you I'd have found out in the crew who's the big best spitter and i yeah i've got i've got an idea who that would be and then i would get them to you know give it a go but i did you ever see lee in that darts thing he did he did it quite a while ago where he what he won so i can't remember what it was me and my husband watched it but he was amazing at darts oh really like a celebrity darts thing yeah it was absolutely brilliant i was really impressed

i'm so impressed and so as soon as this task began i thought i bet he'll um be good because i know how good his aim is yes and he was he was he was quite good wasn't he he did uh he tried the bag of water first which was was slightly overambitious, and he managed to sort of nearly fall over the rope. He tried to shot put an entire bag of water. He did, but the motion was still very good, wasn't it? It was quite athletic. And, you know, similarly, Mike sort of talked about how his aim wasn't good.

He said it more than once, but actually I liked his method best. I thought that was a really... The javelin, the James Roth javelin. Yeah, I thought that was a lovely method. But I think the points just went on time, didn't it? I can't remember. It went on time, yeah. So I think actually Lee didn't, although the method was good,

Lee only got two points and Mike got three points because it was sort of a mad rush to see who could get it done first so Charlotte Charlotte's method she did pretty well in the end I think what she landed on worked I did like her trying to run quicker than the water would fall run quicker than water and I see what you're saying about similar to what you would do it's fulfilling the it's fulfilling the net brain fart isn't it yeah and there's something very optimistic about that and you know as she said rightly you know what if i discovered that i could i like that open-minded positivity you know i think that's uh

you don't you never know until you try you know i feel like if she discovered that she could run faster than gravity she wouldn't have carried on doing taskmaster right you'd go off and use that skill for something else you'd hope so particularly in the current times you know we need things like that uh and but you know i like sarah's idea as well just sort of cutting to the chase you know and uh and she had very good aim i thought i thought if i did that i would get anywhere near anywhere near she made it look easy that and uh but I yeah the thing she got to in the end with the leaving the ice to melt giving her time to get back behind the rope I thought was was genius if she'd done that first it would have looked incredible yeah yeah I have I have a feeling that Sarah's going to do pretty well because I think she has kind of flashes of,

we'll get onto it next, but I think she has flashes of understated brilliance that she doesn't kind of, you know, yeah, she doesn't sort of, she does it in quite an understated way. And then you go, God, that was actually inspired. Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, Jamali on the podcast last week uh i think told us that this was a highlight for him coming up a task that he was most proud of i didn't realize that i mean

he came last by some considerable distance i don't know how this was a highlight for him the the knife on the end of the stick was terrifying i mean it was terrifying it was terrifying i i just thought oh god and um what was he actually trying to do i mean so the water balloon i mean i think he was trying to have the water balloon full of water on the coals go back behind the rope with his gigantic knife stick spear thing and then pop the balloon which i guess the principle of it works right but then the balloon popped too early and broke the sauna stones so then the matches again quite an interesting idea he landed on yeah to let the match light and then hiss when he got behind there i thought it was quite good but it took him 25 minutes so it was uh it was one point yeah yeah

i felt protective about a Alex with that absolutely mega knife. Yeah, I think sometimes in the throw of the tasks, health and safety maybe goes out the window a little bit. But I just, I like his confidence, you know. He's got a very winning, youthful confidence. Definitely. I mean, that's summed up by the fact he said this task was a highlight for him and it took him 20 25 minutes at this one point it's amazing yeah well you never know do you can sometimes do the show and think oh yeah oh my god that was really that was really smart and then

it goes for nothing um as i but you must have you must have known with with the marble run for example that you've you'd come pretty high you must have known when you marble run, for example, that you'd come pretty high. You must have known when you did that, that's got to be a winner. Yeah, no, I had a real moment in the dressing room on my own. Like, yes, you know, it was a really big moment for me. And that's why I'm just a bit disappointed in context, in the context of the whole show. But when you Google, you don't get katherine parkinson uh marble run do you it's katherine parkinson mental health they do

were there any tasks that when you did them you you thought oh this is brilliant this is going to absolutely smash it and then in the studio it turned out to to not be that i i can't remember how I was. I mean, you know, how I was scored became pretty academic pretty early on because I was obviously last place quite early on. But I can't remember how I was scored for the Christmas tree bagging task. But I thought that that was inspired. Yeah, I think you did very well on that.

I think I did all right on that. I was really pleased with my upside down film but then you know Johnny did something amazing and just ruined my moment those are the worst aren't they it's so much worse because if you do something you think is good and it turns out to be rubbish fine but if you do something and someone just does a better thing it's a proper proper kick in the guts

that one yeah um yeah so my my highs weren't as high as i hoped they were would be and my lows were much more significant than i thought at the time thought, oh, they won't put that one in. They'll edit that one out. Oh, that went so badly. Surely they won't put that in. They'll just edit my effort out because it took too long or whatever. Yeah, you've definitely never seen

Taskmaster before. If you did things so badly, you're like, oh, well, come on. They surely won't leave that in. It won't be good to tell. I didn't think the shoe in the bath was a bad, I didn't think that was bad.

I thought that was going to be edited together and look like, oh, okay, she did that, you know. But that, yeah. They're not your friends in the edit sometimes. They know what they're doing. So it was one point for Jamali, two points for Lee, three points for Mike, four points for Charlotte and the big five points for Sarah Kendall.

Once you devised your pulley system, you then attempted to run faster than gravity. Again, yeah. Imagine if I had beat it. I would have really discovered something incredible. You'd be able to just run up a tree to the moon. Yeah. Task two.

Create the best new way to remember how many days each of the months have. You have 20 minutes. Your time starts now. Yes. I like this task too. Yeah. Tricky, but quite fun, I thought.

And I have to say, I thought Sarah's idea was brilliant. And I might use that now. Did you really? I did, yeah. It baffled me. I wrote, how did Greg think this was good? Because Greg really liked it as well. So I think, I guess I'm in the minority then.

I found it really baffling. I mean, I'd need to look at the diagram again to check which bits are the up bits and which bits are the down bits. And also, presumably, there's a bit of variation between different people's bodies. So what might be up for her might not be up for me. But I just thought as

a as a general idea to interpret a task it was great I also thought Mike's now I'm not sure how to say this word but mnemonic mnemonic is it mnemonic I think it's mnemonic I think it's mnemonic mnemonic mnemonic mnemonic I thought that was really inspired and very memorable uh not that i can remember it but and i just i didn't think he i didn't think he went for that as much as i thought he might go for that i thought that was uh it was very it's a very mike it's very mike his one like because i thought him and lee both did something that was fairly route one like doing a poem or a mnemonic or something like that but Mike's was very him and very in persona but all I can remember from Mike's is 31 dead orangutans yeah so it's not a

good system because every time someone say how many days does July have I'm just thinking about loads of dead orangutans it's not helpful it's true it's true I quite like jamali's effort you know yeah well that's totally jamali it's the most it's actually the the best one in terms of actually remembering the months it's the it's the best one because greg would just have to listen to a thing but so little effort but so confidently done so confident my favorite bit of that was when he got to december he went that's christmas month just in case just in in case Greg had forgotten that while listening back to it. Or he was talking about the summer, lots of days in the summer, which is good.

Little facts. No one else had little facts, did they? And when they said, oh, it's a bit of a long, Alex said it's a long message. It's a lot of information, a lot of content. I just like his kind of, you know. His youthful confidence is good yes i didn't completely understand charlotte's i i um i didn't understand the clock so this is where we differ i i liked charlotte's i think was supposed to be

just an instant visual cue it looked lovely and i love love pipe cleaners so i think why do you like i've just got a lot of time for pipe cleaners always have done my cat likes them playing with them oh really and and they're just surprisingly um versatile as charlotte discovered what sort of pipes are they supposed to clean i don't know why i'm asking you because you seem to be an authority on pipe cleaners. I don't know. I used to use them to clean my recorder. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's giving me a memory now, actually.

Yeah. I used to play recorder. That's what I used to use it for. Get all the spit out. Although not much spit in yours, of course. Not for me. Well, just... No greenies.

Just clear feminine sputum i i liked charlotte's effort because i think the idea was that you'd find october on the clock and the color of the arrow matched up to how many days it had right so how what did she do for leap year then or february there was nothing to no there was no reference to the leap year the problem was the clock was still working so it pushed both the pipe balloons off yeah and then she put them in wrong anyway so it turned into you'd have to look at october see it was pointing to 30 remember it was the opposite and then know that it was 31 so the idea was solid but she screwed it up at every possible turning.

Yes, but it worked, didn't it, as an idea? And I think, you know, if you were trying to teach your children, that would be quite a good visual aid. So that would work. But the task was for Greg, wasn't it? For Greg, yeah. He didn't like it. No.

I think he was being kinder to her this episode because she had a rough couple of first episodes. Oh, right, okay. So I think giving her three points for that was, you know, his way of saying, okay, right, you're trying at least. Okay. But Jamali got four points for his... Again, I think he's, I think a bit like Mawahan kind of won him over with his sort of cheeky yeah

fresh ideas but i just think he's he he's so sort of winning that that's sort of getting him more points than he should get at the moment that's why i think yeah yeah i think yeah maybe he's i think he's sailing close to the wind though so we'll see if that carries on. Might all come, yeah, yeah. I liked Lee's poem. I liked his... He was thinking of brine, wasn't he? And then he said grime. Yeah, brine I think he decided was a bit too confusing. I mean, I found the whole thing slightly confusing.

I don't remember any of his poem. I think it needs to stick in the memory, doesn't it? It needs to be, if anything, more memorable and simpler than the one that we all know. Yeah. 30 days past September, April to November. It's interesting, I don't know what the February bit is either. February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February, February I think with all of these things, my main thing would just be just learn it.

I would have done a mnemonic. Yes. Do you have any idea what would have been in the mnemonic? No, but I've often used mnemonics in my life. Like I can remember if I like go to watch a show at the theatre and I've got sort of worries in my head, I quite often sort of um from an early age I can remember I had one I sort of each worry began with the the first letter of each word and and it was like take another arrow out of mummy's bag or something and uh and then I'd go home and I'd be able to remember my

particular worries so you were using the mnemonic so you didn't forget what you were worrying about? Yeah. Because quite a lot of people need techniques to stop worrying. You needed a technique to make sure you did worry. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I need to keep those worries in my head so that I can deal with them during a sort of thinky time at a later date. So take an arrow out of mummy's bag. Is that the worry or is that the mnemonic?

That's the mnemonic. Okay, so I thought you were worried as a child that you took an arrow out of your mum's bag. Oh, God, no, no. That would be like, so the first worry would be something beginning with t like yeah um you know the climbing frame you know and then the second worry would be beginning with a um you know and so on and um yeah so i think i think it's just i'm not even joking it's just mnemonic. Is it just mnemonic? I think it's just mnemonic. I think just ignore the M, like Nasher. Like Nasher.

You like the B, no? Let's put it in those terms. Okay, very good. The mnemonic. Yeah, fine. No, I keep it. Can I just say this in action? Hi, Mike.

Hi. Oh, how many days does October have? October? Oh, orangutans. 31. 31 dead orangutans. I mean days did October have? October? Oh, orangutans. 31. 31 dead orang... I mean, you're not going to forget the 31 dead orangutans. It's an absolutely horrific sight. They're endangered. I was born in September. Samurai, 30 days,

because of the 30 samurai that nobbled. April. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Let's move on to task three. get all your luggage through security you must stay inside the maze until your luggage has been through the x-ray machine you may go under one rope and release one rope you may also disconnect one pole completely but then you must pick up that pole and carry it for the rest of the task if any of your luggage touches any of the barriers the

maze will restart you must start again fastest wins your time starts now such a long task loathed it i mean that's the sort of task that even at the beginning you just hear white noise you know i just sort of found that that sort of thing i panic yeah and uh you know i think maybe if it wasn't being filmed as a TV show, I might have the kind of, you know, feel a bit calmer and work it out. But that just, I did find that that kind of brought me out in hives a bit, that task. Yeah, it's a tricky one. I'm not sure I even understand it now. It's just so, they throw so many rules at you.

And I guess the, I don't think they'd made too much of this, but Sarah, when it worked out, she could go round the edge of the maze to get back in. So really the way to hack it is at the beginning, don't go into the maze at all. Just go all the way around to the machine and move the one rope there and go in. But no one did that, which I think they probably were quite annoyed about that no one worked that out i like to think i would have worked that out but you never know in

the heat of the moment do you yeah i i like to think i would have but you sort of always worry that you're breaking a rule that's really obviously there but just not stated on the page coming but um but yes now i uh didn't three of them get disqualified for this? They did, didn't they? Yeah, three disqualifications, Charlotte, Jamali and Mike. Yeah, really, it's a tricky one as well because there's so many things to trip you up. So they had the passport and the boarding pass at the beginning and a lot of people missed that.

Then all of the rules that were in the task. And then once you got there, there was water in some of the bags. i didn't think that was fair at all i did not think that was fair because mike was disqualified for having water in his bag but did alex asked some people if they had water with them i don't think he asked mike so it's a real trip i don't think i would have spotted the water if alex hadn't given me the given me the knowledge i wouldn't have spotted the bags would you just walk walked through the maze and put yourself through the x-ray machine I wouldn't have spotted the bags. Would you have just walked through the maze and put yourself through the x-ray machine? Yeah.

Yes. No, I liked it, but it was a sort of, it reminded me a little bit of the one that we did with the lockers, actually, where there were lots of rules. And I sort of, you know, it's funny how quickly in life you sort of opt out of certain things because you're always with people that want to take on those sorts of tasks a bit more.

Do you know what I mean? And I sort of think if I was on my own and it was life or death, then I hope I would be all right at that sort of task. But I think I've got so used to kind of letting the more capable person take control in those sorts of situations that I'm really not, I sort of have a bit of a physical reaction to kind of letting the more capable person take control in those sorts of situations. I'm really not, I sort of have a bit of a physical reaction to those sorts of tasks. How are you in a normal airport situation?

I'm all right, but I feel like I've flown quite a lot, you know, but I always forget the order. And I think it's like if you go the wrong way once, then you always go the wrong way, because the sense of memory is to go the wrong way so it's one of those uh things where I've you know I've tried to check in a bag a bin bag of clothes before um because my suitcase got a hole in it your suitcase got what at what point did your suitcase get a hole in it um I mean this was when I was a student you know I think I realized there was a hole in it? I mean, this was when I was a student, you know. I think I realised there was a hole in it at the airport. So then I got hold of a bin bag and binned the actual suitcase. And the Italian man at the desk just thought, what are you trying to do?

Because, of course, a bin bag is going to get a hole in it. So did they let you check in the bin bag is it's not it's gonna get a hole in it so you can't so did they let you check in the bin bag this is good information are you allowed to check in a bin bag of clothes i did check in a bin bag but this was this was you know 90s so i don't i don't know if that's the thing that can happen now but i yeah i i think they just thought it must i must have been very cutting edge and it was some kind of high fashion statement. Yeah, I noticed that after that Gucci launched their bin bag suitcases, didn't they? Did all the clothes arrive at the other end?

I think they did, yeah. I think they did. Pretty good. That's funny. I haven't thought about that to this day, but that gives you some idea of the life I led. I would never do that now. I think I would have struggled to break any rules in this task because I do,

I like checking in and I like, I like following the rules in that sort of situation. I quite often, I will take my belt off on the way into the airport. So as soon as the taxi drops me off and the belt's coming off so I can walk through the security thing what about not wearing a belt at all it's a good question that I hadn't even considered up until this moment I think you should have that in mind when things get back to normal yeah cut out a step there just wear a onesie

yeah I uh I think you might have spotted the thing you know just going in right at the front i think you probably would have done if you if you if you're somebody that engages with the rules on the on the task you know piece of paper can't be i think that would i actually think that would have been a quite an easy uh thing to work out i'm surprised nobody did i think it's the water that would have got me i think it's because if he wasn't asking he wasn't flagging up because that's but that's not how it works airport security they don't not mention the water let you take everything through and then not let you on the plane do they they do remind you about it yeah yeah yeah i'd imagine like just water free

in the case but i realize now you're talking about the bottled water yeah i thought i'd missed something attention but i remember now there's bottle there was bottled water bottled water yeah yeah yeah very nice of you to just go along with it though yeah he must he must be talking about a case full of water that i can you throw that away for me please, you can't take that on board. Yep, I know. I feel like you're giving me extra plane security, by the way. Why would I do that?

I'm just, you know, I don't know. You tell me. Because of the glasses? Yeah, because of the glasses. Studio task time. Act out a nursery rhyme for the taskmaster to guess. Each team has three minutes to act out their nursery rhymes. Most correct guesses wins.

You must remain silent and on your spots throughout. Did you enjoy doing the studio tasks? I did. And I loved watching this one in this episode. But yeah, I really, I did enjoy the studio task. Of course, I didn't know they were coming because I hadn't watched the show. So I was a bit surprised when I was asked to get on stage.

I was like, oh God. Really? So, no, I understand you haven't watched the stage. I was like, oh, God. Really? No, I understand you haven't watched the show. Fine. Some people don't. They go into it fresh. Absolutely fine.

But you didn't even realise the structure of the day in the studio. You didn't know that was going to happen. No, not at all. And, yeah, no, I did enjoy them. I can't remember if I ever did well in them. I doubt I did, but I enjoyed them. I can't remember if I ever did well in them. I doubt I did, but I enjoyed them. And I think this task,

you can see how animated and angry people get, you know, and how, you know, Daisy got very angry about the hippo with Richard. But you can see, because both Sarah and Lee got really entertainingly cross, didn't they? Yeah. I mean, really. Because I thought this task put a lot of pressure on Greg, actually,

and I thought he was quite sweetly down on it, sort of didn't think he'd done well. I thought he did brilliantly. I'd only have got the Humpty Dumpty, I think. I mean, it's been a long time since I engaged with nursery rhymes, and I thought he did a really good job. I did think that Lee and Mike um were wonderful yeah really good beautiful European avant-garde double act and they were so agile they're so

agile aren't they they're both so they're both so agile they've both got that sort of uh French clown sort of vibe they have they're sort of you know in good shape and have a sort of elan and it was quite beautiful to watch. If you'd just taken all the sound away and just watched it, I thought it was very good. But yes, I thought the others were good too, but what seemed to work less in unison, maybe because there were three of them, you know. Yeah, I think that's one of the rare ones where three might not be an advantage because you need to be on two people's wavelengths yeah um it brought back a slightly horrific memory of having to draw three lines and draw a chicken but

I I don't yeah I it's it's very frustrating trying to communicate something to someone else silently isn't it when they're not when they're just not getting on board with it it is i remember enjoying the um the words the word round and thinking yeah i'll be good at this i'll be good at this and then daisy just um beating me with swear words and what was awful was i tried to be cool and tried to do something i think i said farted or something like that try to get down with the cool kids and that's how i lost i was sort of going i'm gonna do a funny i'll play you in this game daisy what a dick the rudest word i can think of well in that studio task it was five points for lee and mike the french clowns and three points

for charlotte jamali and sarah which is another victory for sarah i believe it's a second victory in three episodes which is pretty good uh but everyone else still riding along there nicely in the series at 55 points for sar, Lee and Mike both on 51, 31 for Jamali and then Charlotte trailing at the moment with 28, but it's all still very early. Now, Catherine, from this episode, do you have any predictions maybe?

Can you spot a winner in there yet? I think Sarah might win. I think she's got a great combination of thinking outside the box, but also being quite just competent when she actually because it's about having the idea and then following it through. Right. So, you know, like the ice cubes, I could have had that idea, but I wouldn't have hit the sauna stones. and I also think I think that Mike could it's nice and early and Lee is

I think probably Lee is quite competitive as well and he's got it depends what the tasks are because I can imagine him nailing a lot of the tasks I do have a feeling that maybe Charlotte will trail a little bit behind, but not nearly as far as me.

And, you know, I say that sister to sister with respect. So basically you're saying anyone could win apart from Charlotte. Yeah. Which was, I don't know how much of the podcast you've listened to before, Catherine, but that was sort of the catchphrase of the last series was, it's anyone's game apart from catherine's oh for god's sake but look you're a very you're a very popular contest that we had loads of emails in uh for you um a couple of them we've covered already kaz in melbourne emailed to say uh have you

carried on making your masks but we we've covered that up i'm going to melbourne soon i shall tell kaz that i'll bring one on the plane kaz you hear that katherine is bringing a clay mask and they're rare now because she stopped making them um and kaz kaz says you're my favorite season 10 contestant thanks very much for bringing me so much joy in a rubbish time that's a lovely email this is from uh jake um hello catherine and ed catherine since taskmaster have you converted any other pieces of your furniture into arachnids um yeah that was unfortunate that was i don't know why i didn't go out the room i was it was just politeness and a sort of misplaced obedience and again because i hadn't

watched the show yeah then i did go out the room sometime but i always sort of misplaced obedience. And again, because I hadn't watched the show. But then I did go out the room sometime, but I always felt like I had to be given permission to do that. So, you know, that was really embarrassing. This is from Josh in Edinburgh. But I think I actually scored quite well. I think I scored quite well on that because, you know, am I the spider? I think that was a fair point that he took really well.

I think I did quite well. I can't remember. I think Greg might have given you the benefit of the doubt on the spider table, but it was also the same. I think it was the same episode as the masks incident as well. So I think by that point he was really worried he genuinely upset you. Yeah, sympathy. Well, fuck him.

This is from Josh in Edinburgh. My question to Catherine is, what task from Series 10 do most people talk to you about? I think, I mean, you understand at the school gate, I've just pretended it's not me. So nobody's actually talked to me about it. I've just sort of, you know, because I'm very serious, I do lots of serious theatre work

and I've just kind of pretended that, you know, it's not me. There's an actress that I look quite like called Amanda Abbington. I'm sort of basically, that's going to be my line. Oh yeah, yeah, I saw her in that. Yeah, she was great.

Bit ditzy. I'm really concerned for her mental health. No. Google it. I think it's probably the shoe in the bath. Yes. Yeah, that one definitely sticks in the memory for sure. This is from Joseph Chamber.

To Catherine Parkinson how do you feel let's see if you enjoy this how do you feel about the fact you give off the vibe of a stressed yet insane posh mother well I'll take posh because I'm not particularly posh

I'm from Tolworth but I definitely pretend to be posh to get on in life so thank you. Thank you for that. It's taken a while to get over my suburban vibe. I'm actually not that stressed. I think that's my problem. I'm very relaxed and don't care enough.

Right. So I'm not. But, yes, I think i am a mom as well so so so you know i'll take posh stressed is fine and i am a mom so that's good good um we'll finish on we'll finish on this one this is from mark in sydney australia so maybe you can pop in uh when you're over there um let's see if you want to pop in after the question. Question for Catherine. Did she really do a fart in fear at the lockers task as seen on the YouTube channel extras?

No, no, no. And they know I didn't. And they know I didn't. And I remember I heard Greg talking in his earpiece saying, let's just see how it goes. Let's just see how it goes. Before he said that, he loved it. He loved my discomfort. Do I seem like the sort of person that would break wind on television i mean give me strength no no no but look task must have done

weird stuff to people right when you're under the pressure of a task i won't i won't answer any more questions on this well why do you think i saved that one till last so in answer to your question mark she's not sure she thinks she might have done it was one of the cameramen laughing he's he's that's he's admitted it it was laughing through his nose that sounded like now catherine we always ask our guests on the Taskmaster podcast to rate their experience on the podcast between one and five points don't feel pressured to you know give it high points if if you've not had a good experience on the Taskmaster podcast give it one point no I will say five it's been a total pleasure good well we've had an absolute blast having you on

I hope you've exercised some of your Taskmaster demons and hopefully it will change the Google search terms from now on. I would like it to be Catherine Parkinson clay masks, okay? And I'll sell them on Etsy and, you know, people can get their hands on them, okay? Look, you're going to have to start... People will... If they're available on Etsy, people will buy them

and you're going to have to start making them again. Do you think you can bring yourself to do that after Greg's horrible insults? I think so. I think it would be therapeutic to start doing it again now. Yeah. Good. Thank you very much for coming on the Taskmaster podcast, Catherine.

My total pleasure. Thank you. Bye. Well, there we are. It's so lovely to have Catherine on the show. Not only did we get to hear about her time on Taskmaster, she had some great hot takes about this series of Taskmaster and also some lovely anecdotes.

I'm assuming they stayed in the edit, but the spit anecdote and the airport anecdote. Big stuff. Love it. Exclusives. We're going to see them in the papers. I can feel it. Front page of the Daily Mirror. We're going to see them in the papers. I can feel it. Front page of the Daily Mirror. My brother tried to teach me how to spit greenies and it didn't work because my spit's too clear.

Thank you very much, Catherine. Remember, everyone, to watch Taskmaster 9pm, Channel 4, every Thursday. Or catch up on all four or watch the bleeped versions on all four as well. We will see you next week. Already recorded the episode, so can't help you out with questions. Next week's guest is Taskmaster super fan and television host, Rick Edwards. We will see you then. Goodbye. My great collection. For the last, I would say, six months, I've been making, almost compulsively, clay masks. Specifically for this show?

No! God, no. LAUGHTER I've just had this urge to work with clay. Yep. Quite often male faces. Right. Everything cool at home? I think it might be a breakdown. Here's Catherine's collection. It's interesting.

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