Recap / Taskmaster Series One

Taskmaster recap index
British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen
Specials: Champion of Champions | New Year Treats and One-Offs
New Zealand series:
Seasons: One | Two | Three | Four
Australian series:
Seasons: One

Cast

From left: Romesh Ranganathan, Frank Skinner, Greg Davies (seated), Alex Horne (seated), Roisin Conaty, Josh Widdicombe, Tim Key

• Taskmaster: Greg Davies
• Taskmaster's Assistant: Alex Horne
• Contestants: Frank Skinner, Josh Widdicombe, Roisin Conaty, Romesh Ranganathan, Tim Key
• Teams:
  • Frank Skinner and Tim Key ("The Adults")
  • Roisin Conaty, Romesh Ranganathan and Josh Widdicombe ("The Children")

This page contains unmarked spoilers for the series in question. If you haven't seen the series yet, you are recommended to leave the page now. You have been warned.

Episodes

Episode 1 - "Melon Buffet"

• Prize Task: Most Unusual Item
  • Winner: Tim - a reindeer skull (5 points)
  • Frank - a pair of antique grape scissors (4 points)
  • Romesh - A cheap snowglobe with a photograph of his children inside, given to him as a Christmas gift from his sister-in-law (3 points)
  • Roisin - A photograph of a "tramp" (the Taskmaster himself) sitting on a bench engraved with a quote from W. H. Davies, The "Tramp Poet" (2 points)
  • Josh - a football "signed"^note according to Josh, the signatures had been removed after he submitted the prize. According to the Taskmaster, he just brought in an unsigned football by the Plymouth Argyle squad, losers of the 1994 Division 2 playoffs. (1 point)

• Task 1: Eat As Much Watermelon As Possible In A Minute
  • Winner: Romesh (5 points)
  • Tim (4 points)^note Technically ate the most, but penalised for eating after the time ended
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Frank (2 points)
  • Roisin (1 point)^note spent so much time looking for a knife she only had time to eat one mouthful

• Task 2: Paint The Best Picture Of A Horse While Riding A Horse
  • Winner: Frank (5 points)
  • Romesh (4 points)
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Tim (2 points)
  • Roisin (1 point)^note penalised for painting while on a mechanical horse, not a real horse

• Task 3: Completely Empty A Bathtub The Quickest (Without Removing The Plug Or Tipping / Damaging The Bath)
  • Winner: Romesh (5 points)
  • Frank (4 points)
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Roisin (2 points)
  • Tim (1 point)^note Technically fastest, but penalised for accidentally removing the plug then deliberately trying to conceal it

• Live Task: Pop Up A Tent, Get In The Tent, Zip Up The Tent, Pop On A Onesie In The Tent And Emerge From The Tent Wearing The Onesie (Quickest Wins)
  • Winner: Tim (5 points)
  • Frank (4 points)
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Romesh (2 points)
  • Roisin (1 point)^note penalised for not getting into her tent and for not putting on her onesie completely

• Tiebreaker: Find The Taskmaster's Assistant First (Hide and Seek)
  • Winner: Frank (1 point)^note Tiebreakers are not technically worth points and so do not count towards the overall episode and season tally; it is included here simply for the purposes of clarifying the winner
  • Romesh (0 points)

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Frank Skinner (19 points +1 tiebreaker)
  2. Romesh Ranganathan (19 points)
  3. Tim Key (17 points)
  4. Josh Widdicombe (13 points)
  5. Roisin Conaty (7 points)

Episode 2 - "The Pie Whisperer"

• Prize Task: Most Impressive Item
  • Winner: Tim - his 2009 London Marathon Participant's Medal (5 points)
  • Frank - a custom-made leather hat styled after a Christmas cracker paper crown (4 points)
  • Roisin - a £500 bottle of champagne containing the equivalent of eight standard bottles (3 points)
  • Josh - his Celebrity Pointless winner's trophy (2 points)
  • Romesh - an Arsenal F.C hat purportedly thrown from the team bus during celebrations after the 2001-02 Double victory ^note For the benefit of those not familiar with professional soccer: a Double is when a team wins both the top place in their league division and the overall league cup. In this case, Arsenal came first in the Premier League (the division) and won the FA Cup (the cup). As for the hat, it was noted by the other contestants that the hat likely did not have any direct connection to any players or team members, and may actually have just been thrown by someone else in the crowd (1 point)

• Task 1: Hi-Five A 55-Year-Old (Fastest Wins)
  • Winner: Josh (5 points)
  • Roisin (4 points)
  • Tim (3 points)^note penalised for falsely invoking charity in order to approach people
  • Frank (2 points)^note "created" a 55 year old by high-fiving people of various ages until he reached 55
  • Romesh (1 point)^note waited an hour with a sign before giving up and high-fiving a 50-year-old

• Task 2: Identify The Contents Of Five Pies^note From the viewer's left to right, the five pies contained glass marbles, frozen peas, steak, a photo of the Taskmaster, and hot toothpaste (You Must Not "Breach" The Pastry)
  • Winner: Tim (5 points)
  • Roisin (4 points)
  • Romesh (3 points)^note breached a pie - the bottom of the toothpaste pie fell out when he picked it up
  • Josh (2 points)^note breached a pie - the bottom of the frozen pea pie fell out when he picked it up
  • Frank (1 point)^note failed to identify any of the pie contents correctly, believing them all to contain fairly traditional pie ingredients. This even extended to the steak pie, which was the only traditional pie present

• Task 3: Do Something That Will Look Impressive In Reverse
  • Joint Winners: Roisin and Romesh (5 points)
    • Roisin - Thirsty Wolf^note in black and white, Roisin reads a book, pausing intermittently to "suck up" water into her mouth
    • Romesh - Tree Wizard^note the titular "Tree Wizard" magically makes several balloons appear after a surprising amount of effort before jumping into a tree, all the while a song triumphantly narrates his exploits
  • Josh - Man Vs. Machine (4 points)^note Josh, on a skateboard, "pulls" a van with the Taskmaster's Assistant sitting in the front
  • Tim - MILF (3 points)^note Tim speedily does a jigsaw while a timer counts down from thirty seconds
  • Frank - Push-Up and Away (1 point)^note Frank performs two push-ups, before leaping up to rapturous applause. In the studio, Frank himself expressed disdain for the final result

• Live Task: Crack The Code^note The code is, from left to right, the weight of the Taskmaster's Assistant and the Taskmaster in stones, Unshackle Yourself And Sprint One Metre (Fastest Wins)
  • Winner: Roisin (5 points)
  • Romesh (4 points)
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Tim (2 points)
  • Frank (1 point)

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Roisin Conaty (21 points)
  2. Tim Key (18 points)
  3. Josh Widdicombe (16 points)
  4. Romesh Ranganathan (14 points)
  5. Frank Skinner (9 points)

Episode 3 - "The Poet and The Egg"

• Prize Task: Most Meaningful Item
  • Winner: Romesh - his wedding ring (5 points)
  • Frank - his child's hobby-horse (4 points)
  • Tim - a piston, purportedly a prop from his prize-winning Edinburgh Festival show (3 points)
  • Josh - a copy of his father's self-published book (I Blame The Beatles) of letters to the editor (2 points)^note On his appearance on the companion podcast, Josh reckons that he should not have played it for laughs since it made him appear callous and it made it appear that he did not care for his father's book. In actuality, Josh has read the book (a satirical take on the "Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells" mindset) and appreciates his father's book
  • Roisin - a dictionary (1 point)

• Task 1: Throw A Tea-Bag Into A Mug From The Furthest Distance In One Hour
  • Winner: Tim - (5 points)^note constructed a funnel system by digging a hole and using plastic to guide the ball into a mug, cut a hole in a tennis ball, stuffed a teabag inside it, and used a tennis ball launcher
  • Frank (4 points)^note used a box to guide the teabag into the mug
  • Romesh (3 points)^note spent 3 quarters of an hour throwing dry teabags at several mugs grouped in the driveway and missing, before realising that he needed to wet the teabags for improved aerodynamics
  • Roisin (2 points)^note dropped a wet teabag from atop a ladder
  • Josh (Disqualified)^note used a wheelbarrow as a "mug" before making a cup of tea in it. However, the Taskmaster claimed that he was actually disqualified because when making the tea he put the milk in first.

• Task 2: Use A GPS Tracker To Draw The Best Picture While Walking Around A Field
  • Winner: Josh - a flower (5 points)
  • Romesh - a self-portrait (4 points)
  • Tim - a "long drawing" (3 points)^note originally attempted to draw a key, but since he was unlucky to have his shoot coincide with a storm, he eventually decided to go for a run with the GPS device
  • Frank - his son's hobby horse (2 points)^note or so Frank claimed; the actual drawing is ambiguous, and on the Taskmaster Podcast it is speculated that Frank was merely joking/bluffing to get some points using his entry for the prize task
  • Roisin - a bunch of "tulips" (1 point)^note originally envisioned as sausage, Roisin kept messing up her drawing and it morphed into bacon, then a pregnant woman, then the Angel of the North, and finally settled on tulips. In the studio, Frank quips that it looks more like a duck inside a golf bag, which, according to the Taskmaster, would have gotten Roisin more points

• Task 3: Buy The Best Present For The Taskmaster (£20 value)
  • Winner: Josh - a tattoo of the Taskmaster's name on his foot (5 points)
  • Roisin - a pet mouse (named after the Taskmaster) and some scratch cards (4 points)
  • Frank - sunglasses with rear-view mirrors (3 points)
  • Romesh - A specially commissioned (and bizarre) portrait of the Taskmaster as an angel with webbed feet (2 points)
  • Tim - £16 worth of book tokens and a £4 card (1 point)

• Task 4: Using The Items Provided, Get The Egg As High As Possible (Without Breaking It)
  • Winner: Josh (5 points)^note constructed a mat with crushed paper and threw the egg up into the air, which missed the paper ball mat but fell onto the grass in the garden with nary a crack. In the studio, the Taskmaster's Assistant explains that it is due to eggs being born of birds, and so have gradually evolved to not crack when landing on grass.
  • Romesh (4 points)^note constructed a "tower" using the stack of colour paper and pens and setting the egg on top of the pile
  • Frank, Roisin and Tim (Disqualified)^note each contestant broke the egg

• Live Task: Stand Up After 100 Seconds^note with Romesh getting a box to help calm his nerves
  • Winner: Josh (5 points)
  • Tim and Romesh (4 points)
  • Frank (2 points)
  • Roisin (1 point)^note stood up first and last

• Tiebreaker: Guess Frank Skinner's Age In Minutes^note 30,505,028 minutes
  • Winner: Josh - 200,000 seconds (1 point)^note Tiebreakers are not technically worth points and so do not count towards the overall episode and season tally; it is included here simply for the purposes of clarifying the winner
  • Romesh - 150,000 minutes (0 points)

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Josh Widdicombe (22 points +1 tiebreaker)
  2. Romesh Ranganathan (22 points)
  3. Tim Key (16 points)
  4. Frank Skinner (15 points)
  5. Roisin Conaty (9 points)

Episode 4 - "Down an Octave"

• Prize Task: Most Beautiful Item
  • Winner: Tim - a flight to Cologne to visit Cologne Cathedral (5 points)
  • Josh - a "Magic Eye" picture, allegedly of the Taskmaster "as naked as the day he was born"^note it was revealed in the podcast to just be a old Magic Eye picture sourced by the crew behind the scenes (4 points)
  • Frank - a country mouse-themed vacuum cleaner cover (3 points)
  • Roisin - a garish cardigan (2 points)
  • Romesh - a figurine of a mother and child (1 point)

• Task 1: Make This Block Of Ice Disappear As Fast As Possible In One Hour
  • Winner: Josh (5 points)
  • Frank (4 points)
  • Roisin (3 points)
  • Romesh (2 points)
  • Tim (1 point)^note Tim moved the block of ice to the riverbank and dumped it in the Thames, and the Taskmaster's Assistant only called time after the block of ice was out of his eyesight. Since it hadn't actually "disappeared," the Taskmaster penalised Tim and put him in last.

• Task 2: Team Task - Get To Eleven Points In "Taskmaster Squash" As Fast As Possible^note points are gained when contestants touch their heads, and lost when they shake their heads or disrespect the Taskmaster and his assistant
  • Winner: Roisin, Romesh and Josh (2 points each)^note for reaching eleven points first
  • Frank and Tim (1 bonus point each)^note for actually managing to work out the rules to Taskmaster Squash

• Task 3: Fill An Egg-Cup With As Many Tears As Possible In 20 Minutes
  • Winner: Frank (5 points)^note leveraged the Taskmaster's assistant and three crew members for their tears using chopped onions and while singing "Old Shep"
  • Romesh (4 points)
  • Josh (3 points)
  • Roisin and Tim (1 point)^note neither produced any tears

• Live Task: Memorise As Many Names As Possible From The Players Of An Australian Rules Football Team^note The players are named Chisel, Grillsy, Reggie, Gordo, Paddo, The Colonel, Dina, Pop, Blanket, The Yank Tank, Clarence, Izzy, Eggsy, B-Rad, and Trev.
  • Winner: N/A
  • Each contestant only correctly named one player each, and so were all awarded 1 point each.

• Trick Task: How Many Beans Are In This Tin / Spaghetti Hoops Are In This Can / Grains of Rice Are In This Bag?
  • Victim: Josh (1 bonus point)^note for being a good sport during the tasks

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Josh Widdicombe (16 points)
  2. Frank Skinner (14 points)
  3. Romesh Ranganathan (10 points)
  4. Roisin Conaty and Tim Key (9 points)

Episode 5 - "Little Denim Shorts"

• Prize Task: Most Valuable Item
  • Winner: Josh - a blank cheque (5 points)
  • Frank - a ring bought for £600, now valued at £3995 (4 points)
  • Romesh - a 14-year-old car, a "Peugeot 407", his wife gifted to him and valued at £590 (3 points)
  • Tim - eight copies of his book, The Incomplete Tim Key (2 points)
  • Roisin - a "diamond" ring worth £12 (1 point)

• Task 1: Get This Boulder As Far From The Taskmaster House As Possible In One Hour
  • Winner: Josh (5 points)^note Hired a courier to take the boulder to Windsor
  • Frank (4 points)^note Took a train journey with the boulder to Feltham
  • Tim (3 points)^note Attempted to tie lots of balloons to the boulder to get it to float, before abandoning the attempt and asking the Taskmaster's Assistant to drive him and the boulder in the assistant's van for 2.3 miles.
  • Romesh (2 points)^note Wheelbarrowed the boulder 1.4 miles in one direction and then called up a courier to take the boulder in a specific direction. Unfortunately, the net distance from the house ended up being 1.75 miles.
  • Roisin (1 point)^note Stayed at the Taskmaster's House and called up one courier for the ETA to Camber Sands before deciding against that, and with 28 minutes to go, started rolling the boulder out of the house and along the Thames riverbank.

• Task 2: Grow The Longest Nail In Ten Weeks
  • Winner: Josh - 2.8 cm, right big toenail (5 points)
  • Romesh - 2.2 cm, left big toenail (4 points)^note decorated his toenail with a smiley face for finesse
  • Frank - 2.1 cm, left thumbnail (3 points)
  • Roisin - 1.8 cm, right thumbnail (2 points)^note bit her thumbnail during the 10 weeks
  • Tim - N/A (1 point)^note claimed to be unable to participate due to other acting commitments requiring him to portray a compulsive nail biter

• Task 3: Team Task - Make A Bed Located Outdoors To Hotel Standards While Holding Hands With Your Teammate(s), Then Get In
  • Winner: Frank and Tim (2 points)
  • Roisin, Romesh and Josh (0 points)

• Task 4: Make This Swedish Person Blush As Deeply As Possible In Ten Minutes
  • Winner: Roisin (5 points)^note First attempted to ask the Swedish person unnerving questions before pivoting and asking that he stand with his head between his legs, allowing blood to rush down via gravity.
  • Romesh (4 points)
  • Frank (3 points)
  • Tim (2 points)
  • Josh (1 point)

• Live Task: Blow Up The Biggest Balloon In 100 Seconds While Blindfolded
  • Winner: Roisin (5 points)
  • Frank (4 points)
  • Romesh (3 points)
  • Josh (2 points)
  • Tim (Disqualified)^note the rules stated the balloon had to be tied at the end of the 100 seconds, which his wasn't

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Frank Skinner (20 points)^note Frank used the blank cheque to withdraw GBP 19,000 from Josh's account and returned the money right afterwards
  2. Josh Widdicombe (18 points)
  3. Romesh Ranganathan (16 points)
  4. Roisin Conaty (14 points)
  5. Tim Key (10 points)

Episode 6 - "The Last Supper"

• Prize Task: Most Satisfying Item
  • Winner: Tim - a homemade fish chowder (5 points)
  • Josh - a completed 2014 World Cup sticker album (4 points)
  • Romesh - a vape mod (3 points)
  • Frank - a stress ball with a voice box (2 points)
  • Roisin - an "Orgasmatron" head massager (1 point)

• Task 1: Get The Lowest (Mini) Golf Score Using Eggs^note points are calculated as "Shots x Eggs x Minutes"
  • Winner: Roisin - 1,000 points (5 points)
  • Frank - 1,096 points (4 points)
  • Tim - 1,200 points (3 points)
  • Josh - just above 6,000 points (2 points)
  • Romesh - 35,088 points (1 point)

• Task 2: Team Task - Stage A Realistic Blooper From A Home Movie
  • Winner: Frank and Tim - Two brothers, Brad^note played by Tim and Geoff^note played by Frank, who is also doing the filming, are putting up gardening decorations, but Brad has an unlucky fall from the step ladder while hanging up bunting that leaves him upside down, buried up to his waist and his legs protruding from the ground.^note slowing the footage revealed the trick where Tim is lying down on a blue mat and Brad's legs are actually mannequin legs (2 points)
  • Roisin, Romesh and Josh - A "behind the scene" look at how Taskmaster is made. Romesh is arguing with the Taskmaster's Assistant on the semantics of counting hundreds and thousands on a cake, while Roisin, who is holding the camera^note and, as is acerbically noted by the Taskmaster, hardly captures any of the actual funny moments, goads Josh into slapping the Assistant's arse and pushing him face-first into the cake. When Roisin attempts to apologise, the Assistant slips and falls into a full kiddie pool.^note This was subject to much criticism by the Taskmaster, who pointed out that the camerawork hardly captured any of the actual bloopers and that most of the funny material was acted out by/subjected to the Taskmaster's Assistant. Though initially moved to defend their work, Romesh and Josh eventually conceded that the quality was quite poor. (0 points)

• Task 3: Make The Best Meal For The Taskmaster Using Ingredients Beginning With Every Letter Of The Alphabet
  • Winner: Frank (5 points)
  • Romesh (4 points)
  • Tim (3 points)
  • Josh and Roisin (1 point)

• Live Task: Wearing Boxing Gloves, Put The Most Blue Sweets From A Full Bowl Into An Empty One In 100 Seconds (Non-Blue Sweets Will Be Subtracted From Total)
  • Winner: Tim - 21 blue sweets and 0 non-blue sweets for 21 points(5 points)
  • Romesh - 22 blue sweets and 10 non-blue sweets for 12 points(4 points)
  • Frank 12 blue sweets and 1 non-blue sweet for 11 points (3 points)
  • Josh - 23 blue sweets and 13 non-blue sweets for 10 points (2 points)
  • Roisin - 428 blue sweets and 2571 non-blue sweets for -2143 points (1 point)

• Episode Rankings:
  1. Winner: Tim Key'' (18 points)
  2. Frank Skinner (16 points)
  3. Romesh Ranganathan (12 points)
  4. Josh Widdicombe (9 points)
  5. Roisin Conaty (8 points)

Episode Tally

• Frank Skinner and Josh Widdicombe = 2 episodes
  • Frank (Episodes 1 and 5)
  • Josh (Episodes 3 and 4)
• Roisin Conaty and Tim Key = 1 episode
  • Roisin (Episode 2)
  • Tim (Episode 6)
• Romesh Ranganathan = 0 Episodes

Task Tally

A breakdown of the tasks as won by the contestants is as follows:

• Josh Widdicombe: 11 tasks +1 trick task (1 prize task, 7 video tasks^note counting the "best present" and "longest nail" tasks as video tasks for the purpose of this tally, as despite being judged in the studio they were introduced and featured in the video task segment of the show, 1 video team task, 1 live task, 1 tiebreaker. A bonus point was also awarded for his counting tasks in Episode 4 due to his being a good sport, hence its inclusion here.)
• Tim Key: 10 tasks (4 prize tasks, 2 video tasks, 2 video team tasks, 2 live tasks)
• Frank Skinner and Roisin Conaty: 6 tasks
  • Frank: 3 video tasks, 2 video team tasks, 1 tiebreaker; total: 6 tasks
  • Roisin: 3 video tasks (1 joint with Romesh), 1 video team task, 2 live tasks)
• Romesh Ranganathan: 5 tasks (1 prize task, 3 video tasks [1 joint with Roisin], 1 video team task)

The live task in Episode 4 saw no official winner, but each contestant managed to earn 1 point each.

Episode Titles

Each episode (apart from episode 6) is a Title Drop made by either a contestant, the Taskmaster, or the Taskmaster's Assistant. In this series, the titles were provided by:

• Episode 1: Roisin Conaty (while discussing her lack of preparedness for the watermelon task: "I thought it was going to be, like, a melon buffet.")
• Episode 2: The Taskmaster (on Frank Skinner's attempt to determine the contents of pies: "My feeling, Frank, is that you were trying to sense out the contents of the pies [...] sort of a pie whisperer.")
• Episode 3: The Taskmaster (introducing Tim Key's attempt to get an egg as high as possible: "Ah, the poet and the egg.")
• Episode 4: Roisin Conaty (after Josh Widdicombe got a bit shrill and high-pitched during a debate over how much the Taskmaster's Assistant helped Roisin during the "melt the ice-block" task: "Down an octave!")
• Episode 5: Tim Key (during his attempt to make Fred the Swede blush: "Say 'I like to parade around in my little denim shorts'.")
• Episode 6: N/A (this is to date the only episode which does not have a Title Drop as the title. It was named as a reference to the final video task and the fact that it was the last episode of the season/series, potentially)

Series Ranking

1. Winner: Josh Widdicombe (94 points)
2. Romesh Ranganathan and Frank Skinner (93 points)
3. Tim Key (88 points)
4. Roisin Conaty (68 points)

This to date remains the closest margin of victory between a series champion and any of his or her rivals^note had Josh not received a point for his counting tasks in episode 4, there would also have been the first three-way tie between competitors and the first tiebreak required to determine a series victor; had Romesh managed to win this hypothetical three-way tiebreak, he would have been the first contestant to win a series without winning any episode. Series 7 & 12 would also have a single-point margin between the champion and the runner-up, although in 7's case there was a more significant difference between the other contestants. It is also the first series where two contestants earned the same amount of points, and where both contestants came second. This is the only series with less than eight episodes where this has occurred.