This is the first series filmed in Studio 3 at Television Centre. I believe it's a bit smaller than Studio 1. The set-up is still intended to look like the TM theatre that we all know and love, but there isn't actually a balcony. There's essentially a few rows of 'stalls' near the stage then raised seating which form the 'balcony' - the bulk of the seats are in this.
Once you've cleared security, staff do ask if you want to go in the opera boxes. We declined because we weren't keen on risking a sideview or only being able to see the back of the thrones. However, if you do opt to go in these seats, the warm up guy (Mark) will interact with you quite a lot - something to consider if like me you think that's your worst nightmare!
Mark joked that the opera box seats are way more uncomfortable than the ones on the floor. Not sure how serious he was but again, something to consider!
We had paid priority tickets, which tell you to arrive at least an hour and a half before filming begins. This isn't enough if you want to be seated close to the stage, we arrived around 11am (for the 1:30pm recording) and both the paid and free queues were already substantial. We got some really good central seats on the 'balcony' but were nowhere near getting the 'stalls' as these were full and several people in front of us being directed to the 'balcony' already once we got into the studio.
From a glimpse at reddit and a couple of other places, if you have free tickets it sounds a bit of a crapshoot. I think someone mentioned only about 20 free ticketed people got in to our recording once the priority queue had been let in. It sounds like you need to turn up WAY early to have a chance. I can only imagine we're talking at least three hours before filming begins, maybe more.
Essentially: there is a LOT of waiting around. I would seriously prepare yourself for a very long day, especially if you go to the second record because by the time we were all seated etc, the actual show didn't start until after 2pm and we were let out around 5:20pm - which is close to when the next block is meant to start!
Bring snacks for the pre-security queue but make sure you eat them because they'll take everything except bottled water off you. I think we started getting let through at 12pm, so my husband and I ate our snacks at around 11:30am.
On that note... HAVE A BIG BREAKFAST (1:30pm record) OR LUNCH (5:30pm record)!
Also, if you're offered the opportunity to use the loo, take it. They're filming for 3 hours (maybe a bit more) and there aren't actually designated toilet breaks during this.
Anyway, onto my thoughts on the show itself...
I've only ever been to studio records for music/album chart shows in the past, and I've been in a music video too. Based on that, I was prepared for repetition and mistakes. To be honest, Taskmaster is such a well-oiled machine now that there weren't THAT many long retakes during the show itself. Greg and Alex often knew when they'd fucked up and just did their lines again. Sometimes they'd obviously have a producer in their earpieces but again, it wasn't intrusive. They ask the contestants to repeat things too if needed.
I actually found it super interesting, but there can be some long pauses that are a bit awkward so I think my main takeaway was to leave behind how you feel when you're watching the actual show, because this is like all the ingredients of the cake being presented in front of you, and sometimes there's a finished cake... and sometimes the cake isn't quite ready yet. Honestly, it's fascinating and kinda fun. As my husband said, "now we're seeing how the sausage is made!" If you don't like TV magic being ruined, I wouldn't go to a recording in the first place, but I assume everyone who wants to go isn't that precious about peeking behind the curtain so to speak :)
Because this is S22, EVERYONE in the audience is a fan. Between filming blocks, Mark comes back out to banter with the crowd and he made references to how the knowledge the audiences have of the show now are just... almost cult-like haha. He got stressy (in a funny way) when he asked if anyone had any questions and they asked some pretty hardcore Taskmaster questions. He's not a fan of the show to the same extent. Honestly, if you're going to ask a question I'd try to keep it simple - but if Greg and/or Alex are still on stage you do sometimes get lucky because they offered some insight into a couple of previous tasks in other series.
At one point my husband got to ask, "are Greg and Alex are planning to go camping again?" and I thought Mark got a bit weird about it (maybe I just didn't have a read on his humour idk?) but Alex and Greg were around and Alex basically said "you'll have to ask Greg." Greg admitted he was drunk last time so can't remember any of it, so yes he'd like to go camping with Alex again. Honestly, it was a fun interaction overall. From their cheering, the audience appreciated the question at least :)
Other overall filming thoughts
Your arms WILL get tired because do-overs mean you have to applaud quite a bit. It's also a long time to be sitting down, but fortunately you can stand up and wiggle about a bit during the breaks.
Mark introduces Greg, who walks out by himself first to banter a bit with the audience and the thought that flashed through my mind was, "god - he's so tall!" I know he's tall, but I don't think I was prepared for seeing him loom over everyone lol.
It was actually Greg's birthday so an American in the audience (there were a lot of you guys) shouted out "happy birthday!" and we all sung happy birthday to him. He then told us off for wishing him a happy birthday more than once.
He introduces Alex, who comes to the stage next. Yes, there was a bear hug and Greg insulted him (I forget exactly what he said, but later on he did start comparing Alex to the leader of the Green Party of England & Wales and yeah... I kinda see it.)
The cast names were revealed and then they come out to take their seats. I wasn't prepared for the amount of make-up artists that suddenly appear whenever there's a filming break lol. It makes sense though.
Someone asked if the cats on Alex's throne have names. Eventually this led to Greg accepting the suggestions made by audience members. They settled on Montag the Magnificent (named by a lady from LA who used to work on DVD menus I think? I miss DVD menus) and Katniss (named by a grumpy tube driver on the Central Line who said he pisses in Oasis bottles - yeah there was a lot of back and forth about that 😆)
Greg said he'd ask Alex on camera about the cats in a future episode but confessed he will probably forget.
They do a quick ad-break during task three and the longer break comes when they set up the live task. Again, it was interesting seeing the crew move quickly to take the chairs away and reposition Greg's throne. Everyone went off stage during this break and Greg came back to take his seat with a cup of tea. I think he regretted this later because apparently it made him really hot under the studio lights, and during the pick-ups at the end, he said he really needed a wee haha.
The cast are released and then Greg and Alex re-do some of their dialogue. We had 11 pick-ups, which is apparently pretty good. Greg fucked up his opening monologue a few times though! Also, the awkward pauses are really obvious during this because Greg will say something and then Alex has to wait for the camera to move onto his face before he responds. I'm going to be watching future episodes now wondering if they're actually talking to five empty chairs!
Vague cast thoughts
Unfortunately, the names are already online if you know where to look, but I won't confirm or deny. I will say there's one person who I was a little disappointed when Greg said their name. Years ago, I probably would've been delighted - but now I have some pretty negative feelings about it. Leaving all that aside, I feel like they're gonna be a Marmite contestant anyway because of their overall manner and attitude.
I knew basically all of the cast, which is the second series in a row this has happened. The one I knew the least about is in the first seat, but I've definitely seen them in something before. Next to them was someone who has basically been on my wish list for a while - so that was nice! Another person was someone I wasn't sure would ever do it and I'm a bit blah about. Finally, there was someone who does a routine I CANNOT stand - but I liked them here. I had a similar thing with John Kearns. I can't stand his comedy persona, he ruined an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for me - but I loved him on Taskmaster. Just goes to show doesn't it!
Vague task/show thoughts
You get the titles and the ad-break cards, it's basically like watching an extended episode. The screen failed a couple of times, but the crew reset everything and you get the full experience.
Greg & Alex banter - definitely existed for this episode and I hope they don't cut it! Alex said he'd got Greg a gift. It was a pretty backhanded gift, yet Greg said he enjoyed it, presumably because of the backhanded nature!
Prize task - I quite liked this one. There was one prize I personally thought was the best, even though it was quite sad - and that was why Greg marked it down. The winning prize was very bizarre but had a whole backstory to it. I'm not mad.
First task - there was a twist to it that was quite evil, but I also felt like Alex regretted it, especially after how one contestant dealt with it! Another contestant claimed to have never watched an episode yet hilariously stumbled on the solution. Greg pointed out Alex enjoys annoying the other contestants with this stuff.
Second task - a surprising early entry for a team task! I'm not sure if I like the make-up of the team of three for reasons that might become clear when the episode airs. I thought the team of two were delightful.
Third task - a musical themed task and was also introduced as, "another team task" but it actually isn't. I agreed with Greg on who should've scored the highest on this one!
Live task - bizarre and went on for far longer than the edit will suggest. Kinda chaotic. My gut feeling was it wasn't the best live task ever, but I imagine the tension created by the music and the cuts will make it more interesting. Personally, I would've ended up throwing everything in my hands at Alex lol. I found it frustrating enough as an audience member!
Overall, I would certainly recommend trying to do this at least once if you're a huge fan of the show. Even lots of the international contingent of the fanbase are managing to get tickets, like I said - lots of Americans (from several states too), at least one Canadian, people from Germany and Latvia. We weren't the only Scots by a long shot either.
However, it's a very long day and I was feeling pretty tired (and quite hungry) by the time we got out. I'm not sure if I'd want to do this more than once, especially with having to travel to London in the first place.
More importantly though, it's very fun and you're surrounded by other Taskmaster fans! I didn't speak to many people but the ones I did were lovely. One lady complimented my outfit, which was also lovely :)
(As for real life... unfortunately, we're still waiting for our luggage to catch up with us because there was an issue with the luggage belts in LHR. We're now back in Scotland but without the clothes we took down with us. Oh well!)
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of Headlong, today’s drabble is all about the times Queen welcomed cameras into the place the music was actually created.
Maybe you want to talk about Headlong. Or maybe One Vision, Somebody to Love, or the News of the World documentary. What was it like to let the world into what was almost a private space, to reveal the inner workings of music making? How did it affect the music made - did it change the final product? Was it fun, or did it feel invasive, or somehow both?
All drabbles should fit the character limit of a single Tumblr ask
Just in case you missed it because you’re not in the North West TV region, here is our TV commercial for Hilary Meredith Solicitors.
I love these fun, quirky, up-for-it type of jobs. Little Orchard and Madison Creative did the concept, script and production for this. In both 30 second and 15 second formats, we also reversioned the ad for Hilary’s…
