Wednesday 13th September 2017, LONDON: BAFTA-nominated UKTV Original Taskmaster will bring together all five of the show’s series champions for the ultimate battle in a brand new two-part special, Taskmaster Champion of Champions (2×60’), airing on Dave later this year.
Critically-acclaimed, multi-award nominated Taskmaster, produced by Avalon, will welcome back all five series champions: Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding and Rob Beckett, with the final spot being fought for on Wednesdays at 9pm on Dave by Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar and Sally Phillips.
Greg Davies will once again rule as the all-powerful Taskmaster with loyal assistant Alex Horne firmly by his side as they put the series victors through their paces with a collection of confounding new assignments in the fight to become the ultimate Taskmaster champion.
Taskmaster has received a 2017 BAFTA nomination for Best Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme alongside RTS, Broadcasting Press Guild and Broadcast Award nominations since its commission in 2014. The show is the highest-rated UKTV series of 2017 and the most watched commission on UKTV Play in 2017 so far. The new two-part special has been ordered by UKTV director of commissioning Richard Watsham and Dave general manager Steve North, and commissioned by deputy director of commissioning Hilary Rosen.
Executive producers for the series are Alex Horne (who also devised the show), Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, James Taylor, Jon Thoday, and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who also acts as series director, and Hilary Rosen for UKTV. Andy Cartwright is series producer.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
About Taskmaster
Taskmaster started out as a critically acclaimed live show, devised by Alex Horne, which ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 and 2011. The show was 2016’s most watched commission on UKTV’s on demand service, UKTV Play.
Taskmaster is already popular internationally with the format having been sold into ten other countries, including Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Germany. The original UK show has also been sold to BBC Worldwide Australia and TVNZ’s Duke.
A US version of the show, with Reggie Watts (The Late Late Show with James Corden) as the Taskmaster and Alex as his loyal assistant has been filmed and will TX on Comedy Central USA.
About Avalon:
Avalon is a multi-award winning talent management, live promotion and television production group with offices in the UK and the USA.
Avalon and ARG, the talent management arm has discovered and represents many artists which are household names, both in the UK, the USA, and around the world.
In 2017 Avalon was named the number one true independent television production company in the UK and has produced numerous ground-breaking television shows including: Emmy and Peabody award winner Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), multi-award winning and Emmy-nominated Catastrophe (Channel 4/Amazon Prime), RTS and Rose d’Or winning Not Going Out (the BBC’s longest running sitcom currently on air), multi-BAFTA award winning TV Burp (ITV1), Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC2), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV) and Workaholics (Comedy Central USA).
Avalon and Topical Television form the television arm of the company and other shows currently in production include: Taskmaster USA (Comedy Central), The Russell Howard Hour (Sky 1), Man Down (C4), Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish (Dave/UKTV), The Chris Ramsey Show (Comedy Central), and Stand Up Central with Chris Ramsey (Comedy Central); whilst the catalogue is sold worldwide by Avalon Distribution.
Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK’s first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK ‘Best New Musical’ awards; and has continued to produce live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company.
For Avalon news visit: www.avalon-entertainment.com or @avalonent
About Dave
Sky 111/246, Virgin 128/194, Freeview 12, BT & TalkTalk 12 On demand on Sky, Virgin and UKTV Play
Dave’s had a haircut and shave in recent years as it grows from awkward teenager to fully-fledged commissioner of new and original shows. And it’s not just comedy these days but entertainment and even some knock-out live sport. Hit UKTV Original commissions include Taskmaster, Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Crackanory, all laden with the biggest names in British comedy. Dave enjoyed critical success with two series of Hoff the Record, a mockumentary ensemble comedy led by the living legend David Hasselhoff.
As well as home-grown delights Dave also goes stateside, cherry-picking cult US Shows including the sharp-witted and sharp-suited Suits and much-loved Parks and Recreation along with Emmy-nominated The Last Man on Earth. This all contributed to Dave’s award win at the 2016 Broadcast Digital Awards for Best Entertainment Channel.
The channel continues to grow its original commissioning slate with political show Unspun With Matt Forde, Red Dwarf XI, Dara O Briain’s Go8Bit, fantasy comedy Zapped and Nick Helm Eat Your Heart Out.
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 41m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands – UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market. The company’s most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £344.8m and EBITDA of £91.3m. It invested £151.2m in programming and related launches last year, and is a significant investor in British creativity.
The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV – an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) – is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.
corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press
