‘Taskmaster’: Greg Davies and Alex Horne on Who Should and Shouldn’t Appear on Series (Exclusive)

Fans of Taskmaster are well aware of how vital the contestants on the show can be for a season’s success. Some seasons feature well-known players who may have a connection to hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne, while other seasons are an introduction to talented people who win over hearts throughout the season. For an American audience, it’s a series that acts as an informative introduction to the incestuous nature of U.K. comedy and chat shows.

Look no further than season two’s lineup of Doc Brown, Joe Wilkinson, Jon Richardson, Katherine Ryan and Richard Osman. These folks have popped up a time or two if you’ve sniffed around YouTube clips of shows like 8 out of 10 Cats or The Great British Bake-Off. But on Taskmaster, it’s a goulash of personalities that blend in a just perfect way. Wilkinson’s ordeal with the potato toss alone is a golden introduction to the series.

So when it comes to contestants on the show, fans, celebrities and the hosts all have their thoughts. “There’s lots of British comedians that I think we’d like on,” Greg Davies told PopCulture. “I would love to see David Mitchell on. I think that would be wonderful. I think he’s hilarious. Come the inevitable international spin … of the next wave of the American show and the peculiar thing where we move away from comedians as we have done a few times in the U.K., I would like to have Ryan Gosling on the show.”

Davies’ desire for Gosling stems from their shared moment on The Graham Norton Show. The Taskmaster star had Gosling in stitches with a story that became a plot point for his series Man Down. “I very briefly met Ryan on a chat show in the U.K. and I thought he was hilarious. I thought he had a sparkle in his eyes. And those are the contestants we’re looking for; people with that rye twinkle in their eyes,” Davies said, also confirming that he wanted him on the show because he laughed at his story.

David Mitchell is a highly requested name from fans, along with names like Richard Ayoade of The IT Crowd fame and Strictly Come Dancing champ Bill Bailey. Mitchell is one of the few to address these requests, explaining his reluctance in a very Mitchell fashion. “It’s a very good show, but I don’t want to be on it. My feeling is that I’d be s- but not in a funny way. People think maybe I’d be a good sport about it, and I don’t think people thinking that will increase if I’m on it,” Mitchell told Taskmaster alum Richard Herring on his podcast. “All I can do is ruin it by going on it and turning out to be considerably more ignorant than people expect.”

Davies and Horne have their go-to choices for U.K. celebrities they want on the show. Horne has said he is interested in having comedian Jack Dee on the show and has dream casting hopes for Prince William and Madonna. Apart from Gosling, Davies has said he’d have Prince Philip before his passing while also holding hope for beloved presenter Lorraine Kelly. Fans in the U.S. may know her for the viral clip of James Acaster telling her to f— off on The Last Leg in a hilarious moment regarding Piers Morgan. “Remarkable clip. Yeah,” Davies said.

The possibilities are endless once you start to think about them. While we might not ever see those dream choices, the scales also tip with some curiosity about whom the pair would never have on the show. Thankfully that’s a short list.

“I don’t think there is. I think previously we would have thought, for example, Ricky Gervais, he’s too big for the show. But I think we could go with anyone now and it’d be great to see someone like that do it. Johnny Vegas did the show, and I was a bit worried about him before, thinking he’s going to be out of control,” Davies told PopCulture. “But we’ve got such strict … The show runs itself so people have to fit into it, so there’s no one I think I would automatically not want unless they’re an awful person.”

So that means we could possibly see a season with Noel and Liam Gallagher from Oasis and Morgan as contestants, right? “I think that putting Piers Morgan on with the Gallagher brothers would be a very challenging season. I think it’s unlikely to happen,” Davies said.

One of the joys of Taskmaster is how those dream-cast choices would be great, but the surprises and new faces are the core treat. As a fan watching in the U.S., many of these names are introduced through participation in the show. Like Frank Skinner, Bob Mortimer or Noel Fielding, a few are already established names possibly gathering new fans. But then there are stars like Rose Matafeo, Guz Khan or Romesh Ranganathan, who appeared on the show before their careers broke open. The series allows you to experience them all as people working through these silly tasks for an entire season of television and not as celebrities, which is unique.