Friday 12 April 2019
The wait is finally over, Taskmaster returns to Dave on Wednesday 8th May with the Taskmaster tyrant Greg Davies and Little Alex Horne putting a new set of courageous contestants through their paces. Series 8 challengers include Iain Stirling (Love Island, Host of Dog Ate My Homework), Joe Thomas (Inbetweeners, Fresh Meat), Lou Sanders (8 Out of 10 Cats, Sick of It), Paul Sinha (The Chase, Tonight At The Palladium), and Sian Gibson (Peter Kay's Car Share, Murder on the Blackpool Express).
The new series sees some of the best brains of British television go up against each other as they conceal themselves in a phone box, make edible dust, cause a hideous food-based injury and apologise to Alex for the horrible thing they've done to him. The merciless Taskmaster and his obedient little man servant have devised these seemingly perplexing challenges to test their creativity, speed of thought and ability to not look like idiots. All for a 24-carat gold cast of Greg's head and the worthy title of Taskmaster S8 Champion.
The eighth series of Taskmaster will air on Wednesday 8th May and catch up on series 1-7 on UKTV Play
#Taskmaster
WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT TASKMASTER
"Taskmaster is one of the most consistently innovative and funny series on telly" Joe Clay, The Times, T2
"The most reliable source for laughs on television" Gabriel Tate, The Times Saturday Review
"Funny, revealing, and glorious...Caitlin Moran once wrote that the comedy panel game is one of the glories of British TV. A new one shone bright last night" **** Andrew Billen, The Times
"The kind of Dave thing that shouldn't quite work but is actually wildly stupid fun. Mainly thanks to Alex Horne, late of so much splendid radio, and Greg Davies...a winner" Euan Ferguson, The Observer
"It's glorious mayhem and stupidly funny" David Butcher, Radio Times
"We're up to series 7 and it's as winning as ever" Sharon Lougher, Metro
"Brilliantly madcap comedy game show" **** Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
"One of the funniest game shows on TV" **** Natasha Holt, TV Times Magazine
"The keynote themes are ludicrous absurdity and moderately cruel sadism. Somehow, however, it all works brilliantly, with the presence of Horne adding the barest modicum of civility to proceedings...prepare for tears of laughter" Mark Wareham, Mail on Sunday, Event Magazine
"Taskmaster is an unashamed celebration of the bizarre and the mediocre" Sam Wollaston, G2 Guardian
"Never before has anything so absurd, so stupid, so utterly pointless, made such good television" Sara Wallis, Daily Mirror
"Inventive" Mike Ward, Saturday Magazine, Daily Express
"The funniest show on telly" The Sun, TV Magazine
"Creative Chaos" Emma Messenger, TV Choice
"This seems to be a series that really brings families together" Bruce Dessau, Beyond the Joke
"Splendidly silly" Sunday Times, Culture
"Clever" David Stephenson, Sunday Express, S Magazine
"The show routinely delivers the funniest, most unexpected comedy of the TV week...The cleverest spin on the panel show format in years, it's must-watch TV" Wesley Mead, Den of Geek
_
For more information, please contact:
Gem Pinkney, Publicity Manager, UKTV
Florrie Sheehan, Publicist, Avalon
Pictures - Pictures
Press Office - Press
Notes to Editors
About Dave
Freeview 12, Sky 111, Virgin, 127, BT & TalkTalk 12, Freesat 157
On demand on UKTV Play | @davechannel
Since bursting onto TV sets in 2007, Dave has been putting in hours at the gym and is now a beefed-up powerhouse of brand new and original commissions from some of the biggest stars and production companies in entertainment. Romesh Ranganthan, Jon Richardson and YouTube sensation Yianni Charalambous are just some of the latest additions to the channel's ever-increasing slate.
Whether it's innovative comedy entertainment like the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated Taskmaster, or scripted sitcoms including the worldwide hit Red Dwarf, Zapped, and Porters, Dave's guaranteed to work your funny bone like never before.
There's also Red Bull Soapbox, Cop Car Workshop, Sin City Motors and a whole host of much-loved programming, all shot with Dave's unique personality that's led to the channel reaching 20million adults a month.
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching almost 40m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market.
The network delivers inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Studios and Discovery, Inc. - is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.
corporate.uktv.co.uk | press.uktv.co.uk | @uktvpress
About Avalon
Avalon is a multi-award winning talent management, live promotion and television production group with offices in the UK and the USA. Avalon and ARG, the talent management arm, has discovered and represents many artists that are household names, both in the UK, the USA, and around the world.
In 2018, Avalon was again named the number one true independent television production company in the UK and has produced numerous ground-breaking television shows including: Emmy and Peabody award winner Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), multi-award winning and Emmy-nominated Catastrophe (Channel 4/Amazon Prime), RTS and Rose d'Or winning Not Going Out (the BBC's longest running sitcom currently on air), BAFTA and RTS-nominated Taskmaster (DAVE/UKTV), multi-BAFTA award winning TV Burp (ITV1), Russell Howard's Good News (BBC2), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV) and Workaholics (Comedy Central USA). Avalon and Topical Television form the television arm of the company and other shows recently in production include: Catastrophe (C4/Amazon Prime), Taskmaster (Dave), The Russell Howard Hour (Sky One), Not Going Out (BBC One), Stand Up Central with Rob Delaney (Comedy Central UK) and Russell Howard & Mum: Road Trip (Comedy Central UK); whilst the catalogue is sold worldwide by Avalon Distribution.
Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK's first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK 'Best New Musical' awards; and has continued to produce live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company. For Avalon news visit: www.avalon-entertainment.com or @avalonent.
For Avalon news visit: www.avalon-entertainment.com or @avalonent.