Culture | TV What started as a fairly silly, knockabout comedy gameshow at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become an international TV juggernaut. The 17 series of Taskmaster has just finished with an 18th on the way , and it has made national stars of its hosts and contestents, spawned seven international iterations and a live experience (which is due to hit London in September) and countless insane tasks, which range all the way from painting blindfolded to composing songs about random strangers in half an hour. Now we have the ultimate task: ranking the show’s best episodes, once and for all.
But will our list win the ultimate prize of the golden bust of presenter Greg Davies ? Arguably the most chaotic moment of the entire series, S2E1 provides moments that have yet to be beaten in Taskmaster history. This is where the show finds its footing: watching guests Katherine Ryan, Richard Osman, Jon Richardson, Doc Brown and Joe Wilkinson struggle to drag three balls and a yoga mat to the top of the hill sets things off nicely. But the crowning glory is seeing them try and chuck a potato into a hole in the ground – the words “Potato hole!” will be seared into the brains of all viewers.
First things first, this episode sees the introduction of Phil Wang’s frankly terrifying bright yellow bodysuit, in which he completes every single task. But it’s also worth sticking around to watch Rhod Gilbert bring his unique brand of chaos to the tasks, as well as dressing Alex up.
