The Taskmaster quest for global domination continues. There's an American version, a book in the pipeline and now the sixth series starts on Dave. And this time it's been pumped up to ten gloriously daft episodes featuring five comedians competing in a series of unlikely games to be crowned champion.
The line-up this time is Alice Levine from My Dad Wrote A Porno, Tim Vine, Asim 'Chabuddy G' Chaudhry, Russell Howard and Liza Tarbuck. And it isn't long before their competitive instincts come out. They've been asked to bring along their best liquid to offer as a prize to the winner and Tim Vine brings along some fizzy Benylin. Because, quite rightly, "everybody loves cough mixture".
And then it's down to the games. First up is doing something dramatic in a wheelbarrow. The stunts they come up with are funny but wouldn't pass muster in the cheapest of Hollywood blockbusters. Even when shot in slow motion. But it is worth watching just for the sight of Russell Howard headbutting a wheelie bin and losing any shreds of dignity.
Next up is a challenge to build a tower of lemons. The highest wins and they can use anything on the table. For most of them this means cutting the lemons. For Tim Vine it means squeezing the lemons flat and getting squirted with lemon juice. Comedians are usually good at lateral thinking but I don't think any of them thought of my idea – balancing the lemons on the flat base of the upturned bowl.
Maybe there was some small print that disallowed this. Bossy Greg Davies and his trusty assistant Alex Horne can be strict with the rules. Though for the next test when everyone was dumped in a field and had to find a hat then get back to the Taskmaster house the judges seemed unusually easy-going in defining what a hat consisted of. And despite their phones being confiscated Russell Howard was somehow permitted to call an Uber.
Who cares about rules though when the games are this much fun? For the final studio challenge the quintet had to arrange items in order of size with their feet under a table without being able to see them. I won't reveal the winner, but needless to say this programme is getting so popular it can only be a matter of time before Taskmaster becomes an Olympic sport.
Taskmaster, Dave, Wednesdays from May 2, 9pm.
