Taskmaster: 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People: 220 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People

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The Horne Sectiongave me occasional guest spots at the Fringe years ago, so I felt like I had a little role in there. It’s a slightly eccentric universe.

A: She’s quite anti-establishment as a person, so this is a good way of breaking rules and not giving a shit. We’re super different but we did genuinely get on, even though we were at each other’s throats. There was a mutual respect! I loved sitting next to Kiell the whole time in the studio, he is hilarious. And I loved getting to know Jenny. Her laugh is so contagious and joyous, she made me laugh a lot. Ivo I’ve known for years, and Taskmaster is just the perfect format for his brain. He’s so verbose that he could take a mad task about an egg and distil it into some beautifully constructed aphorism about life. I don’t have that skill. It threw me into a bit of an existential crisis actually. Like, what is my comedic persona? I don’t have an angle. I was basically just trying really hard and really really cared about the tasks and forgot to be funny. I guess that’s my angle. I’d never met Frankie before. I knew all about him and didn’t know what to expect, but I was really pleasantly surprised. He was so lovely. I loved his dry, acerbic wit. There were these moments of real warmth and sweetness that were really nice when he got giggly.All you need to do it nominate your Taskmaster who will set and judge the challenges, choose your virtual platform and gather the troops for a guaranteed fun-filled event. A: That was all his idea. I think he was keen to put a stamp on the show. I think he decided, “Right, if I’m doing it, I’m doing it.” The task where two teams have to come up with the best soap opera cliffhanger. Kerry Godliman and Jessica Knappett star in Cul de Sac, a harrowing tale of a mother in love with her son, while Gilbert plays a man in a bath who can only say “rub a dub dub”. Gilbert wins. 50 Beermat towers

The task where the contestants have to find out a stranger’s profession but he can’t speak, he can only shake or nod his head incorrectly. Just nice to watch a pleasant old man nod his head at comedians as they silently curse him. 87 Meat feast They're good at cutting right to your core with an off-hand remark. I think we’re all probably low-level narcissists, so when someone really incisively sums you up – I mean, any attention is always attractive – you’re like, “You’ve really seen me.” That’s very intoxicating. You’re like, “What else? Tell me more about me.” Because it’s so personal, it opens the door to really deep personal conversations with strangers so there are a lot of people telling me about their addictions and their families and their relationships and sexuality and gender. There’s no small talk, people get right to the deep stuff, which I love. I hate small talk, so I’m happy to delve right in. And people really feel like they know me. And annoyingly, they do. Contestants have to drive a mobility scooter around an obstacle course in a car park while blindfolded. Sanders drives into a hedge and nearly runs over a cameraman. The entertainment value was almost as high as the insurance costs. 70 Find the satsuma The task where contestants have to paint a picture of a horse while riding a horse. Romesh Ranganathan’s looks like one that has fallen into a meat grinder. 91 Step carefully

Getting the first cast was always going to be the toughest. It was an untested show which relied on the comedic talents of the contestants (and for them to put themselves 'out there' a fair bit). A: Yes. There aren’t that many sitcoms out there that are just nonsense. Actually, Man Down was quite a good influence on me. You were mainly trying to be really funny on that show. Is that fair enough? Every effort to admit latecomers will be made at a suitable break in the event, but admission cannot always be guaranteed.

Have you thought about a name for the King’s Coronation? Because you are clearly in charge of naming royal stuff now. Ivo Graham talks about taking part in series 15 of Taskmaster, which starts on Channel 4 next week. The task where the contestants have to play charades across the River Thames. This one gets in mostly because, within minutes, Sara Pascoe gets distracted by a passing dog. 92 Horsing aroundOver her attention? Sure. Alex asked her in front of us which of us was her favourite, and time froze. We all went silent. She said, “I can’t answer that.” She was very diplomatic. A: Yes, all of them, by the way, were really good at the prize tasks, which is huge for us. They were all thinking about it, which was great. That doesn’t mean they did well. My brother’s a big fan and I talked to him about it. I said, ‘I’m quite worried that it might be a bit humiliating.’ And my brother said, ‘Yes, but that’s your thing, isn’t it?" The varied nature of these challenges gives organisational leaders excellent insight into team performance on a range of tasks. Where are the weak spots? Who has strong leadership skills? Who needs more support?