Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Howdy! It's Ed Gamble here in the Taskmaster Caravan. Welcome to the Taskmaster Podcast. We, of course, dissect the episode of Taskmaster you have just watched. If you have not watched Series 21, Episode 2, turn off now, go and watch it. Channel4.com.
But I'd imagine most of you are nerds, such as I, so you will have watched it at 9pm on Thursday nights, which is when the show goes out on Channel 4.
we are going to be talking about episode 2 of Taskmaster series 21 with the brilliant Armando Iannucci yes Armando is of course a contestant on this series Armando is a comedy legend a comedy hero I cannot wait to discuss this episode with him and of course his time on Taskmaster in general so we should get on with it obviously buy tickets for my tour edgamble.co.uk touring in 2027 dates all over the place edgamble.co.uk buy some tickets guys
But enough of that. Let's talk to Armando Iannucci about Taskmaster Series 21, Episode 2. Welcome, Armando, to the Taskmaster Podcast. Nice to be here. It's good to be back, actually. Is it nice to be back? It's weird.
Good memories for you? Oh, very, very much so. Yeah. A, we had good weather rather late today. Because some I've watched, and I've watched them all.
Yeah.
Big fan. Were... People are trying to kind of beat the clock, but in a rain-sodden car park. Yes, there's a lot of that. With the wind howling. And just like lorries falling over in the distance. You know, sirens saying, get into the house. Do not go outdoors. For your safety, do not go out. And someone's out there, you know, trying to get five eggs into a fish in a river, as I mean.
I don't know.
Yeah, it makes it more stressful when the weather's bad against the clock where you're like, I want to do this right, but also I don't want to be being bashed around by the elements anymore.
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Chapter 2: What does Armando Iannucci think about Taskmaster?
No, I think we're going to stick with series. I think so. Don't you think? Yeah. yeah fuck donald trump yeah if you're using season yeah you are supporting donald trump yeah yeah yeah and we're not when you've worked in america have you tried to bring the terminology series series people just look at me as if i said like you know pavement yeah or something you know
Well, what if you say, well, when we finish this series, well, that's a wrap on the series. They think you're trying to cancel the whole thing. Yes, that's right, yes.
And we ended up with a kind of shorthand on the scripts because we did say it was an American cast, but British writers on Vic. And we did say to the Americans, you know, if there's anything that you just think, we wouldn't say it like that in America. We wouldn't use that phrase. The shorthand was, they'd go, this phrase here, we found this a little bit...
And eventually we would go, oh, and you want to... Bang, bang, bang. You see, and that was a shorthand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Veep opened with a line about Mr. Blobby going to Wetherspoons, didn't it? That's right, yes, which I insisted could not be taken out because it's what got us the season. Yeah, yeah. And you have watched a lot of Taskmaster.
Oh, yeah, just not voluntarily, not because I knew I was coming on.
Yes.
We watched it right from the start, yeah.
Well, I remember finding that out when me and James came in to record Off Menu with you. That's right, yes. And we were very excited to meet you and we were delighted that you agreed to come on the show.
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Chapter 3: How does Armando feel about being on a team with Joanna Page?
And you've finally made it onto the show.
Yeah. Yeah. And they say never meet your heroes. And they're right. No, it's been it's been really a fantastic experience, actually, because I was slightly apprehensive in that it's that thing of should you do a show that you as a viewer, as a fan? Yeah. You really should you actually do it? And there's a show on BBC Radio 4 that's been going on for like 60 years now.
I'm sorry, I haven't a clue. And as a radio producer, I was asked if I wanted to produce it. And I said, no, because I love it so much. I don't want to know what goes on. And then last year I was asked if I wanted to be on it. And again, I said, no, I don't want that. So I was a bit apprehensive about this, but this is such a good, funny show.
I keep calling it a kind show because even though you can look like an arse and that's practically what everyone wants to see. But no one's kind of demeaning you. It's not like these other reality shows where it's done in such a way you want someone to be seen having a nervous breakdown on national television. Yes.
And it doesn't really matter where you, you know, anyone who comes last in Taskmaster is not regarded as the fool. No, of course not.
It's just as long as you've made it funny and entertaining as you've done it.
You look like an arse on your own terms a lot of the time.
You're saying this objectively.
That's not directed to me. No. No, no, no.
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Chapter 4: How does Armando describe the challenges of filming Taskmaster?
And I said, oh, I'm just about to do this one. He went, it's good, isn't it, when you're over 60, isn't it? It's good, isn't it? Because, you know, if you can't be bothered, you just can't be bothered. However, I did think, no, I really, I want to give it a good go. But I just wanted to be...
entertaining that's what it was i wasn't really concerned about points two episodes in yeah and you're being very entertaining am i and you're not concerned about points it can be clear the points aren't the main issue and greg is already referring to you as being of a similar vintage is a phrase that's knocking around a lot I know.
I happily take that because I think I'm older than him. So, yeah, if he wants me to drop a few years to align with him, I'll take that.
It was only Rhys Shearsmith who got very upset with that on the previous series. Oh, right, yeah.
No, Rhys is not old.
No.
He's not old. But I, particularly with the rest of the team, I felt I was the kind of, not the daddy, the uncle. Although you can't see uncle these days, can you? Uncle suggests even older.
Yeah.
What was I, older brother? Old stepbrother from a previous marriage. I don't know. What was I?
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Chapter 5: What insights does Armando share about the show's creative process?
Do you mind if I ask you a question? Please, please, please. Like after doing it, there was a kind of period of about a week where you were in taskmaster mode. Yeah.
Because I remember it was like a couple of days after one of the recordings and we were at a cafe and my wife wanted lots of milk in her tea, but the tea thing wasn't, you know, big enough to, it was so full of tea, there wasn't enough to put the milk. And I immediately went, well, here's what we do. Right.
the tea in there right the milk you can now put back in there and then you can and it was like she was like what are you doing stop the clock yeah i'll sort it you don't have to
And that's five points. I'm going to get the five points.
After the first day of filming, I was staying overnight because I was doing two days in a row.
Yeah.
I was staying at a hotel nearby. And it's one of those altar hotels that was another building. And then they've added bits and then added bits. So it was all kind of hilly-piggly. And I checked in. They said, right, your room, whatever, 507. What you need to do is take staircase three. You'll go up two flights. And then there's a passageway. And then you'll see it sign from there.
And I was going up. And I was still in, like, taskmaster. Right. So this way. Nope. Wrong way. OK, I'll go this way now. And then I'll. Oh, God. Oh, no, it's not a task. It's actually how I get to my bed. Calm down. Right. Nothing is resting on this other than a decent night's sleep.
Yeah, the first night after I did a day of tasks, I was awake. I was just thinking about what I could have done better.
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Chapter 6: How does Armando handle the competitive nature of Taskmaster?
Yeah, people wearing the glasses and trying to find it.
Yeah, just trying to hop across and pick this up and that. Amy and Joel went for the whole outfit, which I think shows who they are in the game for sure. Kamea went for the shoes and the gloves. I tested this task. So I did this task before you did when we were here recording the podcast and they had it all set up and I tested it. I went whole outfit.
And I did very eagerly run in here today to ask Andrew, who works on the show, who filmed it. Do you have the video of me doing the task? And do we know my results? He was like, obviously not. We're too busy making the show.
As I've said before, none of this is filmed. None of this goes out. Not that this is real. No. And you've just got to accept that. Yeah. I'm here to hear what you have to say. Yeah. Thank you for sustaining. But ultimately, you know, you have got to accept the fact that none of this is going out.
You're a doctor, aren't you? Anyway, I pushed the ball off the HR Mando. And I dragged it around in the bucket.
Yeah, whatever. Look, the glasses looked like the worst ones. It looked like you couldn't make out where anything was.
Like kaleidoscopic vision, yeah.
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Chapter 7: What was the most beautiful thing Armando brought to the prize task?
I mean, Joanna put them on before she went onto the stage to read the task. She had them on to read the task.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. The other thing I noticed watching that back was, like, how everyone else, Joel in particular, but also Joanna, and indeed Amy... are all kind of, hey, as they're doing the task. There's a lot of joy. Total glee, yeah. And all the way through, I'm going, right, if I do this, I can get home quicker. I think also it's... If you're a producer...
A lot of your day is about solving problems as fast as possible and with as little energy as possible. Because if you use a lot of energy, it will just eat you up. So you get a lot of this kind of, well, we can't film until they're out of the building, but they don't get out of the building until 6pm, but that only gives us an hour or so.
Okay, right, so what we'll do is we'll film the other thing that's nearby, we'll move the location to there so that we're nearby, and then when it's time, that will take us to 6pm, so you're doing a lot of the
fast kind of whatever's and uh i think that was my downfall so you took that into a lot of kind of uh right well clearly this is all about just getting this task done as as soon as possible and then we can all go home right um you know all the cameras as well yeah right close up hit you know
My wife also says when I've been directing, there's about two weeks afterwards where I'm still in director's mode. And I go, right, who should we go? Should we go for a walk? Right, you two. We're going to start there.
We'll take that gate there. We'll come through. And then I want you to... Calm down.
It seems that you struggle to get out of modes, Armando.
Yes, but that was day one. And I think, you know, having phoned my bedroom in the Mays Hotel, I think day two I was much more in the moment. And I actually enjoyed... I enjoyed it. I had a great time, actually. I really enjoyed it.
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Chapter 8: What humorous moments stood out during the episode tasks?
Not in this one. I can't remember which episode it is, but Greg says, Armando and Joel, two very different men. And I think I said, thank you very much. But actually. In the end, we're quite similar. I mean, we're opposites, as it were. We always end up doing roughly the same.
Yeah, interesting.
Our conclusion is roughly similar. In fact, we did a thing for the press launch of this series. We did a Radio Times thing. So Alex did a task, an Easter-based, an egg-based task for both of us. And both of us
uh failed it in slightly similar ways yeah yeah so it's interesting i mean it's nice to finally involve eggs in a task isn't it oh i love eggs yeah i think when i think the word egg it's in your voice in my head yeah is it big egg big egg yeah big eggs yeah that's a little yeah yeah um if i it's like you know kind of mg drivers to see another mg coming yeah like that that kind of if somebody says big egg
I'm not even going to explain what all that's about.
No, don't. No, no, no. I think one of the many things that you have left in your comedy legacy, Armando, is making very ordinary words very funny. An egg is certainly one of those. Big egg. Big egg, yeah. Amy immediately knocks down all the Skittles, but manages to stand them up. Yeah. Joanna, again, smashes them all over. Yeah. Has to pick them all up. Pick them all up. Yeah. Did the work.
Yeah. Did the work.
Put the work in.
I mean, you know, I'm not complaining. I have only myself to blame.
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