Tuesday 15 August 2017

Greg Davies, the all-powerful Taskmaster, returns to Dave on Wednesday 13th September to set a multitude of bewildering new assignments with the capacity to inspire both rank incompetence and utter genius from the five comics fighting for his love and admiration. As always, statistical beaver and general dogsbody Alex Horne will be at Greg's side, tail wagging happily, always eager to provide any assistance his overlord requires to aid the delivering of his ruthless judgements.

And what fresh fish the Taskmaster has to feast on this series - Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar and Sally Phillips are the chosen quintet who all harbour the same dream of lifting the premier prize in television, sport, or indeed, any field at all: Greg's decapitated head on a spiked plinth.

Seals will be broken, tasks will be read and unpredictable actions will then occur as the five comedians grapple with problems involving cuddles, candles and coconuts. Could you paint a rainbow in total darkness? Create a watercooler moment using a watercooler? Make Marmite? Yes? No? These fearless competitors both can and can't too.

Taskmaster is a BAFTA, Royal Television Society, Broadcasting Press Guild and Broadcast award-nominated UKTV Original. The new eight-part series will air on Dave from Wednesday 13th September at 9pm and episode one will be available from Wednesday 6th September on UKTV Play.

For press requests and interviews please contact:

Gem Pinkney, Publicity Manager, UKTV

or Charlotte Robertshaw at Avalon, crobertshaw@avalon-entertainment.com, Tel: 0207 598 7222

Press images are available via the UKTV Picture Site and more information can be found on the UKTV Press Office website

Notes to Editors

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 licensed into five territories - Belgium, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Finland. 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 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 / @uktvpress

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 top 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 (BBC1's longest running sitcom currently on air), BAFTA and RTS-nominated Taskmaster (DAVE), 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), Man Down (C4), Not Going Out (BBC One), Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish (UKTV), Taskmaster (UKTV), The Russell Howard Hour (Sky 1), and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); whilst the catalogue is sold worldwide by Avalon Distribution. Through Avalon the group 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.avalonuk.com/press or @avalonent.