The line-up for the new series of Taskmaster has been revealed.

The new contestants will be comedian/Love Island narrator Iain Stirling, Inbetweeners/Fresh Meat star Joe Thomas, comedian/Chase boffin Paul Sinha, comedian Lou Sanders and Car Share star Sian Gibson.

Produced by Avalon, Taskmaster’s viewing figures have increased series on series. The seventh series of the Dave show starring James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman, Phil Wang, and Rhod Gilbert was the most successful to date with an average of 1.5 million viewers per episode, increasing by 7% compared to the last series and remains the most watched show on UKTV Play with over 7.4 million views.

Taskmaster was crowned Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018 (beating Strictly Come Dancing, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Love Island, The Voice UK, and All Round To Mrs. Brown’s). Nominations for the show include an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment, two BAFTA nominations for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme, RTS Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Award, and two further nominations at the Broadcast Awards 2019 for Best Entertainment Programme and Best Multichannel Programme.

An international hit, Taskmaster has been sold into 17 countries including original versions of the show being developed for Comedy Central in the U.S. (starring Reggie Watts as the Taskmaster), TV 2 in Denmark, VTM in Belgium, TVE in Spain, and two series on Sweden’s SVT channel.  

The eighth series looks set to air on Dave this May and will be presented, as ever, by Greg Davies and Alex Horne.

Read an interview with Sean McLoughlin here.