Taskmaster creator and star of the Horne Section Alex Horne is the latest guest on Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett's award-winning foodie podcast Dish.
Among other things Alex talked about are Guinness, choosing a cocktail, his passion for Pringles, toasties, fun food names, loving a McDonald’s, childhood meals, being the middle child, dinner at his house, cooking at home, Taskmaster, a Sunday roast, his favourite beverage, The Horne Section, going on tour, Edinburgh, The Horne Section TV Show, and Chicken City vs Egg United.
Below is a taste of the chat.
ALEX ON HIS PASSION FOR PRINGLES
“I love these rumours. I don't think I'm passionate about-Pringles, but I like crisps. I think they taste nice for a start. I think they're easy to handle, you know, they've got the size right. You don't have to cut them up, no cutlery involved-so yeah, I, I'm, I like Mr. Pringle himself.”
“No, I'm prawn cocktail actually. Prawn cocktail Pringles.”
ALEX ON TOASTIES
"Toasties, I used to have, I don't wanna boast, but a toasted sandwich maker. Yeah. But we used to experiment a lot at university with putting different fillings inside. You can put anything in a toasted sandwich. Prawn cocktail on a toasted sandwich maker is delicious.”
ALEX ON DINNER AT HIS HOUSE
“No, my wife Rachel, is very good at insisting we sit down. Family meals are important. And we've got one kid who eats anything, the middle one, the best one. And the, our oldest one is very beige food. But actually, eats a lot, and is getting better. And the little one can get away with anything. And he eats so slowly, we've got one child who's like, takes an hour. I'm a really fast eater. Just get it done. Maybe that's a middle child thing.”
ALEX ON COOKING AT HOME
“Yeah, we share it. So, she does 95, 96%-and I'll do 4 or 5%. That's how we divide it. I can't really do it [laughs]. I just, I don't have the patience for it. I find it frustrating. I like following a recipe. I like being told what to do. And also, I've got such basic tastes, so I'll always have pasta and pesto with cheese. Cheese stirred through ??? Yeah, it is yummy.”
“She [Rachel] made something called Marry Me Chicken this week. I think it's worth Googling, but-it's some creamy chicken sauce with a little bit of spice. That went down very well.”
ALEX ON TASKMASTER
“2009, we had one of our ch- the first child. So, I wasn't allowed to go up to the Edinburgh Festival 'cause he had just been born. But all my friends did, I used to go up every year as a comedian. Tim Key went up. He's my former friend, and-he won the Perrier that year and I was very jealous and envious. So, I set up this, I said, next year I'm gonna do my own competition, which he won't win. So, I sent twenty comedians an email that said, ‘Do you wanna take part in this thing called The Taskmaster?’ And once a month I set them a challenge. The first one was ‘Put some money in my bank account. Most money wins.’ That was the very first task. I got a lot of money and, uh, that paid for the whole thing. So, then the next Edinburgh, I went back and talked about what happened. All the, all the comics were on stage, and it was just instantly obvious that it was funny-and competitive and nonsense. And then I did it again the following year. And somebody then came to the second one and said, well, this would be a good TV show. But it wasn't meant to be a TV show. It was quite organic. And Tim is, annoyingly, still my friend. He's now a task consultant on the show-so he, in theory helps me make up the tasks, but in reality, no.”
“Well, also we for a little while flirted with having bigger contraptions and, like we had a crane one series. And now we've going right back down to just stuff you've got around the house. Cause then people do it at home as well.”
“Well, personality wise, it was clear I couldn't host a TV show. I was always gonna not be the host, but always be the assistant, who sort of wields the power really. Unseen. And Greg was the only choice. So, I knew Greg before from the standup world. He was just, I mean, I can't imagine anyone else doing that.”
“Yeah, they know that I'm the one who comes up with the tasks-to put them in these positions. So, when Rhod Gilbert, for example, says, ‘I want you to take your trousers off and put a candle…’. Between…You know. And, and it goes through my head thinking, ‘Oh, no, Anne's gonna watch this,’ my, my mother-in-law. But also it's good TV. So, so you weigh it up and go…”
“All the dignity went pretty early. Liza Tarbuck made me sit in a cake with no trousers or pants on-once you've done that, you’ll kind of do anything. It changes everything.”
“So, when the next series is looming, I think, okay, I need to go away for a day. So, I, I sometimes go away to a little cottage. I don't tell anyone, have a hot tub. Which I used to be so embarrassed about. But I really like it. And I sit in there. I've got a waterproof notepad. Honestly, they're designed for mountaineers. Fully clothed. Wetsuit on.”
“I think we're filming series twenty-one at the moment, which is quite a long time-so it’s ten years. And there's not an ounce of me that's bored of it. I really enjoy it. So, when the new person walks in for the first time, it's, it's such an exciting thing. ‘Cause everyone's different.”
“So, we've had a, you know, 120 comics or whatever. I want people on that I'm excited about how they're gonna. Because sometimes I can, I have an idea what they're gonna do, but when somebody does something that surprises me, I’m just-so excited.”
“So, I mean, Bob Mortimer was weirdly one of the best. But just, it’s 'cause he's quite practical. Didn't get flustered.”
ALEX ON THE HORNE SECTION
“Even my mum calls it The Horne Selection.”
“Weirdly, 2010, the same year as Taskmaster, genuinely. Well, I had some children, that was the problem. So we were, weren't doing very well financially, and nor were any of my friends, so- they were jazz musicians. My friends, and I was a comedian, and we used to go up to Edinburgh every year, and then we thought, well let's join forces and see if that will help. So, the same year we did Taskmaster in Edinburgh, we booked six nights in a small venue in Edinburgh, and the idea was there’s a jazz band on stage, I'll host it, get comics on, so do your normal set, but with a band playing along, I suppose. So, Jimmy Carr did the first couple, so did his one-liners but to a beat. And I think Tim Minchin did it and, we luckily got a few big names early on. And it just clicked, and people love seeing live music. And love seeing comedy. But, combined-it was, it was great. Yeah, I don't think we were the first to do comedy and music. But we do claim.”
ALEX ON THE HORNE SECTION TV SHOW
“Yes. It's called The Horne Section TV Show. Well, we combined… well, you see, yeah-the name of the band and then the words, ‘TV Show’. That’s the way we did it.”
“Yeah, series two starts in the early summer, I think, I don’t know the exact date. And we've got a guy called Reggie Watts in every episode now, who's my-hero from America. He's in it now. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's fun, it's stupid, it's got jokes. And it does not touch on any issues. It's just throwaway nonsense. We just wanted to make each other laugh.”
ALEX ON CHICKEN CITY VERSUS EGG UNITED
“Yeah, it happens every year. It’s the third year this year. Yes. So I think football, I love football. But it can be very tedious. There's a lot of nil-nils, one- nils. Not in our game. So, I'm in charge of the rules, in a sort of Taskmaster way. So, when, for example, wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus plays, once in each half, we have two balls on the pitch. Which is twice as exciting. If you score a goal, you then have a crossbar challenge to convert the goal into two goals, like in rugby. So, the ball's on the edge of the box, if you hit the bar you get another goal. This year, there's a new rule every year. We're gonna have a sort of Traitor style thing where one player on each team is actually from the other team. But if their captain works out, which player was the traitor, they get a bonus goal. So, they've gotta be bad at football, but not too bad. But you’ve also got your pride, so you don't want to look to awful-in front of 4,000 people. So, it’s comedians and non-league footballers play, men and women.”
“The managers have to be in the centre circle. Whole game. They can't touch the ball. No players, no players are allowed in the ‘D’ at any point, that's a penalty-you know the ‘D’? Complete waste of space, we get rid of that. Goalkeepers have to go up for corners. ‘Cause that's the best bit of football. So, it's like football, but better football. It’s great.”
“It's for Slough Homeless Our Concern, that's a charity, which is great, and, and for the club, Chesham United, which I'm-sort of on the board for, so yeah, it's really fun. So, it's May the 10th.”
The podcast is out now.
Dish from Waitrose is available on all podcast providers.
Taskmaster returns to C4 on Thursdays at 9pm, from May 1.
Picture: Harriet Langford
