Taskmaster

If you’ve somehow managed to miss the show, it’s basically the strange thoughts you have in the shower, turned into a competition. ‘How do you make a snow globe?’, ‘From how far away can I blow out a candle’, ‘how high can a hose spray water?’. All the important stuff.

The sixth series has drawn to a close and Tim Vine, Russell Howard, Asim Chaudhry, Alice Levine and Lisa Tarbuck have all hung up their Taskmaster trainers and gone home for a rest. Now it’s the turn of a new bunch of comedians to face Taskmaster Greg Davies and his assistant Alex Horne!

Families around Britain have received a new houseguest: a big red button, which sits quietly until suddenly lighting up and challenging the families to a number of fiendish tasks.

UKTV has announced plans to build on the successes of 2017, which saw record viewing figures across its channels and soaring ratings for Gold’s Murder on the Blackpool Express. The broadcaster intends to increase its total number of commissioned hours from indies by nearly a third, and will push into commissioned drama.

This week's top television includes the finale of comedy series The Detectorists, a documentary exploring a year in the life of deaf teenagers, a new French crime drama from Walter Presents, and a special two-part series of Taskmaster: Champion of Champions.  

The programme, which has been a hit with UKTV audiences and earned nominations for RTS, Bafta and Emmy awards, began life on stage in Edinburgh, explained its creator, Alex Horne, at a sold-out event at the London Transport Museum.

Every month for a year, in the run-up to the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Horne asked a bunch of fellow comics to complete a daft task. “The first task I sent them was, ‘Deposit some money in my bank account – most money wins.’ Mark Watson put nearly £200 in; no one else got over a pound – and that funded the project.”

Monday:

The Fake News Show

Channel 4, 8.30pm

The Fake News Show is back! Stephen Mangan returns as host, bringing viewers up to speed with false claims and alternative facts in line with the upcoming UK General Election.

Katherine Ryan and Richard Osman will act as team captains, joined by Miles Jupp and Stanley Johnson.

She has been making waves on the comedy circuit taking her exaggerated characterisation and relatable comedic humour to the Soho Theatre in her show Lolly 2.

The comedian, who specialises in character comedy, has made a number of appearances as a comedy actor in shows including Rovers, Plebs and Sicknote. 

Her latest TV project sees her alongside fellow comedians Greg Davies and Alex Horne on Dave's comedy panel show Taskmaster.

The programme has been renewed for two more series and will increase each series run from five to eight episodes. The news comes as the show is nominated for Best Entertainment Programme at the 2016 Broadcast Awards, and became the most watched commission on UKTV's video-on-demand service, UKTV Play, in 2015.