Ep 187. Lou Sanders - Junior Taskmaster S1 Ep.6

Hello, and welcome to the Taskmaster Podcast, or should that be the Junior Taskmaster podcast with me, Ed Gamble.

Today, we'll be talking about Junior Taskmaster episode 6, which is of course the first semi-final.

The competition is heating up.

These are some of the contestants that got through the first five initial heats.

It's a great lineup of kids, as always.

Very excited to chat about this episode.

Do go and watch it on channel4.com if you've not had a chance yet, because I will be dissecting everything that happened.

And we'll be talking to a brilliant special guest, the wonderful Lou Sanders.

Lou Sanders, of course, Taskmaster Champion Series 8.

I know she has been watching Junior Taskmaster.

Looking forward to chatting to her about it.

You should go and see Lou on on tour.

She starts next year in February.

It's called No Kissing in the Bingo Hall.

Lou is always brilliant.

She is such a wonderful stand-up.

She always writes brilliant shows.

So make sure you get onto Lou's website, Lou's social media, and check out if there's any dates near you.

But without further ado, let's hear from Lou Saunders about Junior Taskmaster episode six.

Welcome back, Lou, to the Taskmaster podcast.

We find ourselves here again.

The old team.

Also, worth saying,

I do someone's doing a fire downstairs.

Doing a fire.

They're making a fire in the wall.

I'm glad you clarified that because someone's doing a fire downstairs is a worrying turn of phrase.

Someone's finging a fire.

Not what I was thinking, actually.

I was thinking it sounded like someone was starting a fire in your house rather than, but you jumped straight to

that sort of sexual

sexual practice.

That's what they've been before.

But no, so there's a bit of banging, there's a bit of housework going on.

Have I got a microphone to drown it out?

No.

Well, I've got a microphone right here, new one, and I thought that would be good.

Oh, that'd be good.

Now, what you're doing there, Lou is you're holding up the microphone to show me, whereas you probably should be speaking into it.

Well, I haven't got the end, the end that makes it go in the computer because of the move.

So, you know, you can't blame me for anything right now.

It's a classic moving house story, isn't it?

You think you've got everything sorted out, and then you realise that you've forgotten the end to make your microphone go in the computer?

Exactly.

It's chaos.

But I want to just say I did see your show at the London Palladium.

Oh, yes, my stand-up show, the final show of my hot doggity dog UK tour.

At the London Palladium.

And I thought it was wonderful.

And I particularly like the hotbod, not hotbod, deadbod stuff.

Yes, Deadbod.

Not hotbod.

Look, it's a good, it's a good bit.

Of course, the whole show is a hotbod bit in a way because of my hotbod.

But

But yes, thank you for saying you like that joke because it's that's the hardest joke to sell on tour because there's uh there's a there's a build-up to it and it's slightly weird.

So you can imagine the uh the majority of the the UK don't trust that joke.

But thank you, Lou.

Love that bit and I love the um WhatsApp neighbours bit as well.

Well, I loved it all, but if you wanted my highlights, they're my highlights.

Yes, uh, just for anyone listening who hasn't seen the show, Lou's highlights are in the first 10 minutes of the show.

So

it was lots of of highlights, but they're ones I took away.

They're ones I've thought of since.

Thank you, Luli.

Look, it's great to have you back on the Taskmaster podcast, but of course, today we'll be talking about Junior Taskmaster.

It's the Junior Taskmaster podcast, and we are in the first semi-final.

So, Lou,

first thing I want to know from you, did you enjoy watching the Taskmaster format?

with children involved.

I did.

I did.

And they come across so well.

And isn't it nice that the future's in their hands?

They're very funny.

But really, we're judging their parents.

And I just want to say well done to all of the parents because they were a laugh.

Yeah, I agree.

I think we don't do that enough on the podcast.

Congratulate the parents on

A, bringing up very smart,

fun, and funny children, but also letting them do it.

It's a good word to my mother now, is it?

Oh, are you going to thank

your parents?

Thank my mother, your mother.

I think you're going to thank my mum.

thank you very much to mother dearest uh loud sanders mum

that's her full name

i mean i i've thanked your mother anyway you've thanked my mother i've already thanked her when did you thank my mother i got the opportunity some time ago to thank her and i looked into her eyes and i said what a gift do you want to take a guess at my mum's name

Carol.

No, good guess though.

Anne.

It's Anne.

It's Anne, of course, three diamond.

That's the full name.

Look, let's talk about the episode now, Lou, because we're excited to talk about this.

It's the first semi-final.

Of course, there were 25 children competing to get to this semi-final.

It's the top two of each episode has got through to the semi-final, and this is the first of them.

I quite like this tournament format.

Yeah, it was different in my day.

It was different in my day.

Well, everyone was a lot older, of course, in your day, weren't they?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Look at these Taskmaster contestants.

They get younger by the day, don't they?

Yeah, I do quite like it.

It gives more people a chance to get involved, I suppose.

Yeah, absolutely.

And what I really like about it is that they filmed these semi-final tasks on the same day they filmed all the heat tasks.

So everyone who was in a heat also got to do these tasks.

We will never see them, but at least they got the full experience.

Oh, that's nice.

Yeah, yeah.

They've had a lovely day out.

They have.

And our semi-final contestants today are Anita, August, Finley, Persia, and Scarlett.

A fantastic bunch of kids.

Can you see

any of yourself in these children, Lou?

Do you see any of the contestants and thought that's a little Luli Sanders in the making?

I don't think so.

I think I would have been petrified, wouldn't you?

When you were that age?

Well, no.

I think I would have been the most annoying and vocal contestant, I think.

Really?

Yeah.

There is such a thing as watching a couple with a kid.

They came into the cafe that I was in and they obviously just had the one kid and she was getting so much attention.

And I do think that's good for society to raise kids that feel valued and loved, but there is a tipping point.

And do you think I'm the product of a tipping point?

Could be, could be.

Where this kid thought everything she said was fascinating because mum and dad were doting on her so much that they thought everyone else was going to treat their kid in this way.

Oh, isn't she marvellous she just you know did this or did that and i thought yeah ease off a little bit otherwise she's going to find life quite hard but these um these kids i think it's really well it's really well cast and um and lovely to see kids that's so enthusiastic and so funny and yeah they say what i really like about all of the contestants we've had on junior taskmaster so far is they're brilliant when they're doing things by themselves and you know you can see them being happy with what they've done and a great reaction from the crowd, but they're also very supportive of each other.

Yeah.

You know, if someone else does something, they'll be clapping, they'll be high-fiving, they'll be doing, and it's it's it's really lovely to see the future's in great hands, Lou.

But also, I love the fact that they can't all win and they're good sports about it.

You know what I mean?

Then, when they get knocked out, they look sad, but they're not sort of like having an absolute meltdown on camera anyway.

No, exactly.

I don't God knows what was happening off camera.

Um, but yeah, no, I agree.

That's great.

We should talk about the prize task on this first semi-final.

I'd love to, Ed.

I'd really love to.

The best thing with eyes is the prize task.

Did you have any thoughts, Lou, about what you might have brought in for the best thing with eyes?

Will you tell me first?

I liked a lot of their approaches in this.

Let's talk about Anita straight away because Anita's vibe is, I mean, she's probably the sweetest kid.

I've ever seen on anything.

She's so sweet and she's so genuine.

And she's absolutely lovely.

and really funny.

Like, and you know, it has that little bit of sort of wild weirdness that you want from a funny kid.

And then also, I mean, in her heat, she did some horrible thing where she pretended her hand had been cut off.

She's got a little edge to her where she's just a bit mad.

And I think she's fantastic.

Huge fan of Anita.

And I think she really nails the five-pointer here by just everything.

The collage of David Attenborough in the shape of an eye, her speech about David Attenborough, the look of the whole prize.

I thought it was incredibly well put together, talking about the environment.

I mean, she really backs Rose into a corner.

There's no way Rose can't give her five points for this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What I really liked about August, so August brings in potatoes, and he was very confident in the heat, and he's found

a new level for this semifinal.

So he is still very confident, but he's also very self-aware about how silly the whole show is.

So saying potatoes and then explaining the whole thing, potatoes have got eyes like we all didn't, everyone knew anyway.

I know, I like, I like that, because he did present it.

I wasn't sure if he was in on the joke or he presented it like, guys, you're not going to believe this.

They're always a cold eye.

It felt like he just learnt it last week.

No one's going to believe this.

And what I like about the getting to the semifinals now, so we've met these kids before, and Rose has done an episode with them before.

Rose is getting a little bit more brutal and a bit

harsher harsher with them, which is great.

She's relaxed into the role.

The kids know it's all in good fun.

So she can just go, that's rubbish.

Yeah, because that's a hard role on episode one to really decimate a little kid's dream.

But by six, they found, yeah, it's really nice, actually.

Yeah, I think she just knows that she knows that these particular kids, anyway, can cope with

a bit of criticism.

So it's yeah, take it out into the real world, Rose.

Try and upset some dreams.

But I really liked August's made me laugh because he's done the thing, which I think we've all done on Taskmaster, where we've thought outside the box and we think that's enough for it to be a good prize.

Yeah.

Eventually, when you look at it, when you zoom out, the prize itself is not that good.

And you get that sinking feeling, don't you, halfway through where you think, oh, I don't know if I can even sell this.

Finlay brought in a trophy of the words winning, which of course does have two eyes, like a human.

He says he makes make sure we all know that he knows that humans have two eyes.

Yeah,

it's another interpretation.

I wonder how much they get like feedback from the producers or whatever.

So they've all got different things because that's quite good how different they all were.

Probably not that much.

I think it just shows you how different every child is.

They've all got their own little personalities.

And I like this from Finley.

It's a big sort of braggadocious start to his episode of being like, I'm bringing in a trophy.

This is how sure I am that I'm going to win.

Yeah.

And, you know, good.

Two eyes, classic.

Persia, who I love, I think she's absolutely brilliant.

Persia.

Yeah, she's great.

Such a good vibe.

Brings in the best thing written in googly eyes.

I just think Mystery is great, isn't it?

It's so good.

And she's already set up that she likes googly eyes.

So it's,

she's not even lying there.

No, yeah, she's not lying.

Why would you?

She's not a little liar.

No, follow her.

And I just got the feel.

I think this is the fourth one that we saw.

It was like the kids have really stepped it up for the semifinal.

Because

these are, like you say, all very different.

They all attack it from a different angle.

And just, yeah, like this is like regular taskmaster level of prize tasking, I think.

Have you, have you, how many episodes have you talked about?

Have you talked about the other five episodes with different?

Yes, we've talked about the other five episodes, yeah.

And did anyone bring up, sorry if I haven't listened to everyone, but slash none of them, but did people talk about how much their parents must be like trying to help with ideas and stuff?

You know, like when your parents helped you, because but your personality will still come through.

And it's like, very rarely did I think that's directly from the parents, but it is quite funny when there's a song that's like of a different generation or something and you think, oh, how much did your parents help you with that one?

Yes, yeah.

I don't think the parents have helped that much because if it was you and you were that age doing this, you'd want to do your own.

Mother Dearest was trying to help.

You would be like, No, I want to do this because

you do want the personality to come through, don't you?

And I think it does on all of these.

Yeah.

And also, my mum did help me draw an egg once, so and I got very good points.

So maybe I'm just projecting.

How old were you, Lou?

14.

Why did you have to draw an egg?

It was homework to draw an egg, and mother has got a fantastic range of eggs.

And I got an A.

So maybe I'm projecting.

what do you mean draw an egg you had to draw an egg for homework in art class and she drew an absolutely smashing eggie boiled hard boiled hard boiled eggy so it wasn't just like an egg shell because that would be quite easy to draw just the shape no she helped did she very artistic boiled egg from mother

sailed on in with an a

So of course, I've got my own agenda.

I don't know if you're writing another book, Lou, but A Hard-Boiled Egg from Mother is a wonderful title if you are.

Peugeots had a real aesthetic impact when it popped up on the screen.

All of those eyes.

Reminded me of a lot of the promotional material for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

I don't know if you remember that film.

Oh,

yeah.

I did watch that.

Yeah, I did.

And I thought it was fantastic.

Yep.

There you go.

Nice little film review as well.

And Scarlett finally.

brings doesn't bring in a guinea pig crucially this is the this is the key point oh i like that i really like her as well.

She's great fun.

She brings in a voucher for a guinea pig.

And as Rose points out, within the prize itself, there are no eyes.

Yeah, but you have to go and get the guinea pig.

You have to do some of the legwork.

And I like the fact that she's not, you know, she's not giving up her own guinea pig.

She's sticking to her sort of morals there.

Yeah.

I like that.

What I like about that as well is it's not.

She's sticking to the rules of Taskmaster because when you bring in a prize, you have to be ready to actually give it to someone.

But obviously, there's things in the past where you're like, no one's actually going to take this off me.

So you may as well bring in your guinea pig.

But I like that she is straight down the line.

This has got to be something I'm willing to give away.

Yeah, I liked what I need to week one put in a mum's wedding ring.

That is great.

That is fantastic.

That is.

Scarlett is great.

I'm a huge fan of Scarlett.

Scarlett does some amazing stuff later in this episode, but I can see why this got the one point.

I can't see why it got a one point.

Well, it didn't have eyes, Lou.

do you not have eyes is that why you've got

the spelling of guinea pig has got two eyes in it she didn't and she didn't say that though that would have been a good maybe a good way of getting around christine the producer just wrote that on the chat oh don't give that away that made you sound smart i know to cut that christine don't take credit

thank you don't don't say that let me let me appear smart for once about cut and picking life and also guinea pigs do have two eyes and they're not going to last long so enjoy them when they're there

i like

her taking it down the route of going, Yeah, but if of course guinea pigs have got eyes, if they didn't have eyes, they'd just be big balls of fluffiness.

Yeah,

she loves a guinea pig.

I don't love guinea pigs, but everyone's different.

Why don't you love guinea pigs, Lou?

The life expectancy is too short to really get to know.

You don't want to invest to getting to know someone.

Well, I think maybe they're good pets for kids in that way because, you know, pets are often thought of as maybe a good lesson for kids about about death you know it's you know that everything's not forever so maybe guinea pigs are a good quick way of doing that because otherwise you're not they can spend some time with their grandparents either

it was one point for scarlet two points for august three points for finley four points for persia and five points for anita can i just say yeah go on the girlies are doing very well aren't they i'd like to see that look the the the girls on this series so far have been

i think they've had it it together more than the boys.

I think there's something about that age where the boys are somewhat more chaotic than the girls.

Yeah, girls and women are very powerful, and that's why they're repressed around the world, because men are scared of their power.

Difficult to disagree with.

I love repressing women because I'm scared of them.

What makes this the best thing with eyes, Minga?

Sure, it's the best thing with eyes because David Attenford and his documentary, you're an eye-opener and they draw you in.

He's enthusiastic about the planet, he loves animals and plants, and he encourages us to recycle and litter pick.

Put me in a very difficult position here, Amita.

Because imagine if I'm like, one point,

all ring.

Oh, I want to save the planet.

Oh, the sweetest little speech I've ever heard in my damn life.

What's the favourite thing you've seen, David, at Madu?

Like going to Antarctica and stuff.

Yes.

Would you go to Antarctica?

Maybe if I had bought your coats.

Task one: pump up the inflatable cows.

When the doorbell rings, you must remind Mike that he needs to buy some milk.

When the cowbell rings, you must answer the door.

Shout, is that the milkman?

Then tell Mark the Milkman a secret.

If you fail to respond to the bells, 10 seconds will be added to your overall time.

The fastest person to pump up five inflatable cows wins.

This is a fun, chaotic, messy task.

Yeah.

Mike Wozniak is so funny and so cute with the kids as well.

He's such a little dream.

He is.

And what's wonderful about it as well is he doesn't have to change anything about his personality

with the kids.

He's just the same.

You know how the kids see that?

Let's bully the hell out of this guy.

Yeah.

But that was a great, all the challenges are so good, actually.

Again.

And they are they're doing different challenges, right?

They're not doing ones that they've had for the adults.

No, these are all these are all new.

Fresh ones, yeah.

But some of them I feel like

are

very good tasks written for children, and some of them I think you could absolutely see them on the main show.

Yeah.

I mean, this is kind of one of them.

There were similar ones.

There was a similar one that with, I don't know if it's an

episode it was in, but where they had

five bowls of mashed potato and they had to identify what was in.

Yeah, there's some sort of like task templates that are the same, but changed a little bit for kids.

And obviously,

we've had tasks in the past where you've got to do one thing whilst attending to another thing.

And they're always really good fun.

Yeah.

But this is fantastic.

The secrets, the secrets they were coming out with, Lou, were making me laugh so much.

So cute.

So funny.

They also were very good at it.

Like they kept remembering to say.

Some of them did.

I mean, I don't know.

I think I probably would have been all right at this one.

I think.

I think you would have got so caught up with what ridiculous secrets to shout at the milkman that you would have forgotten about pumping up the cows.

Do you think that's fair?

Yeah, yeah.

And I think I would have told the cows some secrets as well.

I love Persia

telling Mark the Milkman, nice reappearance for Mark in this series.

Mark the Milkman, A, that she's doing Taskmaster is the big secret.

And her second secret is that her best friend has a boyfriend.

And Mike's reaction to that is amazing.

Real, real

shock and excitement.

really fun because that's the sort of secret that's the sort of secret you want to hear from these kids you know well actually you shouldn't you should if you've got kids not to go serious you shouldn't have the word secret you should say surprises so the language of secrets has to go entirely and it just has to be like oh you can have a surprise but not a secret but anyway yes it was very very sweet when they were telling the secrets yeah i really liked it i mean look they they all they all did a very fun job on this some of them better at not missing the bells i mean scarlet and persia both didn't miss any bells.

They were just very ordered, very straight to it.

You know, some great secrets.

Scarlett's going to see Taylor Swift.

Oh, that was good.

Yeah.

Imagine if they panicked with the whole lots of things going on and just said, My mum's having an affair.

I think that's five points straight away for me.

If that's the sort of secret that came out, I would have absolutely loved that.

Five points sent, but your parents are divorcing.

Okay.

August misses three bells, but some great secrets from him that he cut himself, but he cut his hair himself without his mum knowing,

which he did a good job.

I mean, look, that's a.

Yeah, his hair was grey.

It's a wonderful haircut.

But Anita and Finlay, both quite chaotic.

Anita's very good, and it always surprises me when she's this messy because it cuts to her at one point.

And to try and pump up all the the cows at once, she's just lying across the foot pumps, just having a good time.

Yeah, yeah, I would have thought they were all more chaotic as kids, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, she got one point because there was also a moment where she didn't realize it was fastest wins.

She thought there was a time limit, and Mike says it's fastest wins, and then she starts going top speed.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like his delivery on that as well.

Well, it's fastest wins, and then

she just starts going for it.

Yeah, she's brilliant.

Um, Tries to do them all at the same time.

Finley is just all over the place.

Like he gets the bells the wrong way around straight away, doesn't tell Mark a secret, forgets the rules.

And then when he finally manages to tell Mark a secret,

his secret is Mark doesn't brush his teeth and that he's really tired.

And then right at the end.

grabs the head off Mark's body and brings it in as a trophy.

It's just all over the place.

And we've all removed the heads from props when we're panicking, Lou.

Yeah, of course.

Just don't do it in real life with a real life person.

No, that's a good lesson to learn for the kids, isn't it?

Please don't decapitate anyone.

Oh, don't, if you can avoid it, kids,

try to brush your teeth and don't decapitate anyone if you can't.

Yeah,

brush your own teeth and leave other people's teeth where they are.

Yeah, he probably seen you in the Taskmaster sort of head finals, whatever.

Yes, champion of champions, yes.

Yeah, finals, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was there, I was there, and

he probably saw you and sort of emulating you, sort of having an absolute meltdown.

Listen, I'm an influencer.

What can I say?

Yeah, Finley missed 29 bells, but somehow, even though he missed 29 bells and Anita only missed 11, she was so much slower anyway that she still took longer than him.

August missed three, which is pretty good with a final time of 12 minutes and 19 seconds.

But Scarlett and Persia, easily at the top of the table, Persia doing it in an absolutely incredible four minutes and 53 seconds.

So it was one point for Anita, two points for Finley, three points for August, four points for Scarlett, and five points for Persia.

You're the milkman.

No one knows this, but I'm going to see Taylor Swift.

He's a super.

I'm Junior Taskmaster.

You need milk.

Thank you.

you.

Is that the milkman?

My best friend has a boyfriend.

Take him out of the chart.

Pray that.

Oh my lord, you need to buy some milk.

Thank you.

Mike, you need to buy some milk?

Thank you.

I have a secret friend from Norway.

You need to buy some milk.

Thank you.

Is that the milkman?

I want another dog, but my dad can't know.

Come on.

Yes.

Back for you, Cal.

You need to buy some milk.

Thank you.

I love potatoes.

Mike, get some milk.

You need to buy some milk.

Thank you.

And they're all done.

Thank you, Scarlett.

Thank you, Persia.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Task two.

On the next task, write down a number between one and ten in the first hole, a letter of the alphabet in the second hole, and one of the five objects in front of you in the third hole.

You have one minute, your time starts now.

And of course, what they wrote then when they opened the task up.

Balance the number of different things beginning with the letter on an object.

Fastest wins.

You get the idea, Lou.

You get the idea.

You've seen it.

There's sort of no tactic to writing the things really, are there?

Because you don't know what's coming.

But yeah, with the five objects,

there was, you know, a frying pan, there was a tray, which the tray would have been good.

He was also counting the table, but of course, Persia counted mic as an object.

So it became balance three things beginning with F on a mic, which made me laugh.

Yeah.

But no, this is, I think they all did pretty well at this.

I mean, there was some obfuscating of the rules, I think, with, you know, with August especially.

He picks A.

So he goes with A glue as an object.

Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

That was, he is, yeah, that's, it was never going to fly.

But good for him for having a try.

But yeah, I like it.

And he knew it was cheeky.

And I like that, again, Rose is in this position, especially with August in this episode, where she can go, come on, man, a glue.

I'm i'm not falling for that like she can really take him to task about it yeah i think also you know if kids um can lie it's a sign of intelligence apparently because the clever ones are lying anyway yeah oh wow i think most kids lie don't they they little lie most kids lie and manipulate yeah

i don't know why we give them the time of day very sweetly finley picked l for his brilliant little sister lily which Nearly choked me up.

I thought that was absolutely amazing.

That was really sweet.

Yeah.

And he really tries to stick to the rules he he chooses an l but then picks up a torch and says a light which is perfectly acceptable and says oh no that's a torch i can i couldn't put that on there bless him yeah i remember that do you know what i think would you want your kid to try and bend the rules a bit i think i would want mine to on taskmaster damn right yeah i'd be i'd be really annoyed if they didn't i'd be like come on this is this this is taskmaster this is your sandbox to maybe break some of those rules that you have in normal life and take that and go out into the world and get on the stock market yeah

It's going to be really interesting.

I think, in you know, I think in 15 years' time, they should bring all these kids back like they used to do with that seven-up documentary series.

Oh, yeah.

And we just see where they're at and do another series with them.

I would love that.

That would be brilliant.

Because Alex seems that we spoke to Alex on this podcast, and he seems to think there's at least a few of them who will go on to try and be comedians because they got

their first taste of getting a laugh in front of an audience.

Oh, yeah, I was thinking that, and they're so funny.

They could do it easily.

So, yeah, I was thinking that.

I was thinking, God, it must be such a high

to,

and they were good, you know, and to get that feedback.

And yeah.

Well, it's nice seeing how they've developed as well, even from the heats where in the heats there were moments where they'd say something, they weren't quite sure why it was funny, and then they'd get a laugh.

And you saw something switch in their eyes, where they were like, this is fun.

Yeah.

And as we get to the semi-finals, I think we're seeing kids again who sort of understand it a little bit more.

So they're being a little bit more pointed about getting the laugh.

So we've got to apologise to all those parents

children being comedians sorry parents sorry I really like

Persia choosing Mike and getting the two different fish fish plush and fish rubber which oh yeah again I'm not sure I'm not sure about that there's a big argument about semantics in the studio that

I mean Anita so wonderful going it's not it's fish it's plush finger space fish using all her lessons for finger space is such a cute thing to say

finger space because you don't remember that do you

that's been so long since i've thought about finger space so sweet and mike is an object you know to all the mums that are watching

he is isn't he he's an object he's an item he's there to be used he's a piece Anita um he's a piece

I'm joking he is hey come on let's not beat around no he is no no he's those glistening eyes.

Come on.

Wet eyes.

He's crying a lot of the time, I think.

Yeah, he's cry.

He's crying.

He's sad.

That's what I love singer sad.

They're broken.

But Anita immediately called out by Rose because she's challenging Persia, but then Anita just brings in loads of green things.

So she says g

is green finger space something.

So she's also bending the rules quite a lot.

And she's absolutely scandalized by that fact.

Yeah, good work from Scarlett.

She's number eight, letteress, and briefcase, and does very well.

I mean, I think Scarlett's really got her head screwed on.

I think Scarlett is very, very, very good at this.

Is Scarlett older than the others, or is she just tall?

She seems very wise.

Scarlett is 11, so Scarlett's at the upper end of the ages.

But August and Finley are also both 11 at times filming.

Right, right, right, right.

But yeah, I think, again, it's the sort of

gender difference that we've noticed in the series.

And also, kids are just different.

She's just a little bit more straightforward.

They're all lovely God's children as well.

They're all lovely God's children as well, Lou.

Yeah, as well.

And well done to everyone.

You know, it's very sweet to see.

It's lovely to know that Lou is a Christian on this episode.

Well, I've got a Christian, I've got a Christian heart.

A Christian heart.

What about the other parts of your body, Lou?

Which religions are they?

Hindu right foot,

Japanese knee.

Not that that's a religion.

And,

you know, I won't go into the others.

No, you do.

But it was good work all round from them, despite some bending of the rules.

But that was always going to happen in a task like this.

We had a task similar to this in series nine, where we had to pick a letter of the alphabet and then get as many things as we could, beginning with the letter of the alphabet and put them on a tray.

And I was bending rules all over the place.

David Badiel picked Q and was just putting anything on the tray and just putting the Quer sound in front of it.

So it's it panics you, it makes you do some silly things.

And I think it worked perfectly for junior taskmasters.

So August gets one point, Anita gets two points, Finley gets three points, Scarlett gets four points, and Persia gets the big five points.

Oh, G, watch that, Kim G.

Ooh,

A jumper.

Jumper?

Jumper.

Can I go to the shed?

Wait, jumper?

Did you start with a G?

Starts with a J.

That's a shame, isn't it?

Yeah.

G, good, good, good, good.

Hollipopsticks.

Wait, question.

Yes.

Can I see things like a banana?

All the information's in the task.

I would say so.

A brick.

Glasses.

Gavash.

Light?

Right?

That's a torch.

So you picked up a light and we've dismissed it as a torch.

A torch.

A tennis ball.

A gloom.

A ukulele.

A

baking thing.

Green balloon.

Green balloon.

Green stick.

Green stick.

Green thingy, my bob.

Green thingy ma bob.

It's a torch.

I'll classify it as a light.

You'll classify that as a light so that counts, does it?

Queen tape.

L.

You found an L.

Anchards.

It's actually beginning A.

Okay.

Metro freaking tools.

A brush.

Okay, that's it.

Balance.

One.

Oh, my God.

A.

There we go.

It's good.

You done?

Yes.

Wait, I'm on one leg.

One?

Good lord.

Okay, bye.

Task three.

This is an outstanding task.

Write a poem about your favourite celebrity.

Your poem must have at least four lines.

You must perform your poem to Mike in 10 minutes.

Best celebrity poem wins.

A bonus point will be awarded to the most dramatic performance.

I love this.

Did you see Scarlett's eyes light up when she opened this task and started reading it?

She was so excited.

Yeah, she was thinking of Taylor.

She was thinking of Taylor.

We knew it was coming.

We already know, they'd already established that she loves Taylor Swift.

She's going to see Taylor Swift.

Really, really fun task.

And pleased to see that Adam Sandler's still well.

Oh, yeah.

How sweet is that?

I love Adam Sandler.

It made me laugh so much that it was such a left-field choice.

I was not expecting an 11-year-old boy to choose Adam Sandler.

So funny.

He'll go on to be a comedian if he's here's Adam Sandler.

Yeah.

We had Adam Sandler from Finley.

We had The Rock from August.

We had Taylor Swift, of course, from Scarlet.

We had Mike from Anita, which I loved.

But

I think maybe my favourite was Persia choosing Guz Khan.

Oh, I know.

Yeah.

It's good to have it confirmed that some of these kids are big Taskmaster fans because I think we knew Anita had watched it because in the first episode she accidentally called Mike Alex.

But Guz Khan.

I'll be honest, as she was saying,

can I pick a previous Taskmaster contestant?

I had my fingers crossed, Lou.

I was thinking, maybe I'm the favourite of the youth, but apparently not.

It's girls can't.

I'm so impressed.

It's girls can't.

Well, they're all going to have different ones.

And

maybe one day you'll be citing them.

Yes, that's true.

Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed.

But yeah, all of the poems I loved.

They all had different ways of performing them.

Finlay went with Adam Sandler and dramatic to a lot of the kids seemed to be walking across the room and flailing their arms around.

Yeah, that's drama when you're 11.

That's drama, baby.

I should ask you as well, Lou.

What celebrity would you pick?

I don't have icons because I believe we're all equal.

Okay, but you'd have to do the task though.

So who's your favourite celebrity?

It would be Miss Piggy or something.

That's great.

I don't know.

And just to let you know as well.

I don't know.

We're recording this on Zoom and Lou is in a completely pink room.

So the fact she's picked Miss Piggy is ideal.

Is that your Miss Piggy room?

That's my Miss Piggy.

Who would you pick?

You know what?

I wouldn't be far off choosing the rock like August did.

Really?

I might go Lionel Blair or something for a joke.

I don't know.

Well, what about poetry?

Would you have done a lovely poem?

Yeah, I think I find it difficult to be

genuine.

uh emotionally uh especially on screen so i'd find it difficult to do a very genuine poem like scarlet did but i think it was all the more impressive for that.

Her Taylor Swift was a little bit of a mother.

You'd probably rhyme

Heart with Fart, wouldn't you?

Oh, yeah.

Why wouldn't I?

It's a poem, Lou.

You've got to rhyme Heart with Fart, for God's sake.

But I also,

I thought, yeah, I thought Scarlett's was one of my favourite favourites because she was really in the poem.

She genuinely meant it.

Whereas Finley chose Adam Sandler, great, loved it.

But I don't know how much he actually likes Adam Sandler.

He was sort of waving his arms around and the poem was interesting, but it didn't feel like it had a lot of heart behind it.

Same with August and The Rock.

He seemed to pick him quite randomly.

Then he didn't even stand up to deliver the poem.

Wow, poor the Rock.

Poor the Rock, yeah.

Persia, she clearly likes Gus Khan's work.

She was calling him Gus for quite a lot of it.

But it did lead to a...

It did lead to a fun chat in the studio where Rose was very offended that she was not Persia's favourite taskmaster consideration.

You would be.

You would be.

Also try and get those points and say it's Rose, even if Rose is your second favourite.

Yeah, that's true.

because Mike gets a poem written about him yeah by Anita I loved this I loved taking it outside I loved uh sitting Mike on the zebra I loved the acrostic of calling him kangaroo mike it was just a stream of a stream of consciousness from Anita and I loved seeing inside her brain did she get the five points she did get the five points I thought it was totally adorable but then she also got the bonus points for drama which I disagree with because I enjoyed her argument that it was dramatic that it didn't have to be like serious, that the drama was the props and the fact she took it outside.

But I do think Scarlett should have got the bonus point for drama because she changes the lighting.

She changes the dramatic lighting.

Just the way she delivered the poem itself was dramatic.

I thought it was a wonderful choice.

I thought very theatrical from Scarlett.

Yeah.

Do add a lighting change if you can.

The best shows have got a blackout in them, certainly.

I did write a poem when I was a kid that I thought was really good, where my uncle died, and I was moved to write a poem about it.

And I read it out to my family.

I sort of brought them into the kitchen.

I actually called them to sort of line up in the kitchen to hear my poem about my stepdad's dead brother.

And it went, Death is here, death is gone, what's ahead?

Now death has won.

And then,

yeah, and they said, that would be the same age.

I was 11, so I just exactly the same age.

And then everyone went, okay, thank you, and just got on.

Yeah, quite a dark poem for

also so shit.

And I thought it was so good.

Like, the thing is with poetry, you know, it's terrible, but the thing is with poetry is

like people

like the entry bar is so low because anyone could just write a poem, right?

So people think their poem is good because it comes from within them.

So they're like, well, this has got to be good because I'm sort of moved when I'm writing it.

Yeah.

But it often

is really not.

I'm not talking about real poetry now, but anyway, yeah, good poetry is very hard to come by.

But my poem about Kirz Khan is actually very moving.

Also, yeah, I just don't.

Maybe it was tonally wrong for you, Lou, on you know, your uncle had died.

I think sort of generally frowned upon to say death has won.

Yes, yeah, death has won, but you have to deliver it.

Yeah, death has won.

Death has won.

And yeah, I really thought

people don't need to grieve now because I've sort of broken through with this poem.

Yeah.

But then the grieving still went on, if not more so, because of the bad poem, you know, and I thought, wow, okay.

These lot are a tough nut to crack.

Anita got the five points plus a bonus point.

It should have been Scarlett's, if you ask me.

Scarlett got the four points.

Finley got the three points.

August got the two points and Persia sadly got the one point.

I like the poem, but I do agree.

She outsourced the drama.

And also, she was making Mike do sit-ups and stuff.

I couldn't quite see, I couldn't make the connection as to why that was dramatic.

I think you should outsource the drama.

Get someone else, outsource everything you can.

Yeah, delegation, baby.

Okay.

Are you going to tell me why you're getting all this stuff?

No.

Ow, this is heavy.

Okay.

Am I holding that?

No.

Go.

Do you want to hold that as well?

Mike, can you get in the shed, please?

Stonely?

What do you want me to do?

Hey, you're one of my favourite items from the shed.

Oh, Anita.

finger.

It's quite quiet one.

Oh.

So we're going to go to the shed race.

Okay.

Got it.

Yay!

Mike wants me out.

Marvellous, Mike.

I like Mike.

Kangaroo, Mike, does a pike.

Every teddy he has, he cuddles tight.

You, Mike, are so fab, I will give you a gift.

My top 10 favorite items from the shed, including you.

Thank you, Anita.

You're welcome.

Okay, let's talk about the live task.

A very fun live task.

Unroll the roll of sticky tape.

Put all the sticky tape into your bum bag.

Zip up the bum bag and hold the naked cardboard wheel above your head.

You must wear your bum bag at all times.

Fast this wins.

Loved this.

This feels like the sort of thing that could be on the main show as well.

Um, yeah, just really chaotic.

Loads of people wrapping tape around their hands and then realizing they had a big tape glove that they couldn't get off.

Again, it was uh, the girls that nailed this, uh, the boys came rock bottom of this.

Finley, for some reason that I don't know yet, shouted, I'm Batman.

Um,

yeah, that's good.

If you're going down, go down in style, yeah.

But gets all the tape stuck to his hand.

Took him ages to get it off, as does August.

I don't think he ever even got it off, actually.

I think they had to stop the task and he still had all the tape on his hand.

But yeah, it was good to see all their different techniques.

Good to see how calm the girls were.

Persia, very quick with this, Anita, very quick as well, just behind.

And then, you know, Finley was going for four minutes, 35 seconds, as compared to Persia's one minute 24.

But yeah, this looked really fun.

They've got other, the boys have got other things on their mind at that age.

It's not their fault.

You know, they've got a lot of hormones to deal with and all this stuff, I imagine.

But no, a lot of fun and a very good performance, especially from Persia in that task.

So the episode scores, and this is important because this is who gets through to the final.

So this is actually bigger stakes than Main Taskmaster.

And doesn't your heart go out to those little souls when they're just trying their best and you know that some of them aren't going to make it through?

And it's so important to them and their friends at school are going to be like, oh my God, you're in the thing.

Yeah, but it's already good.

They've, you know, even doing one episode is pretty cool.

But these, you know, these kids are on their second episode.

They've done really well.

August is bottom with nine points.

Finlay on 13 points.

Scarlett on 16 points.

Anita is through to the final with 18 points.

And Persia is through with 20 points.

But Scarlett, all hope is not lost because the top scoring third place will also be getting through to the final to take that final position.

But we'll have to wait and see what happens.

in next week's episode to see if Scarlett makes it.

Lou, thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.

You are so welcome as always.

Thank you so much.

It's lovely to see you and well done to everyone in the show.

I thought they were brilliant.

Yes, they were all brilliant.

Lou, you're touring, aren't you?

Oh, I'll be touring.

Yeah, No Kissing in the Bingo Hall starts sort of end of Feb.

Fantastic.

We're all looking forward to seeing that.

Where are you doing in London?

Earth.

Hackney Earth.

But that's not till May.

Can I come to that one?

I'd love you to come.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'll pop you on the door.

Bless you.

We always ask our guests to rate the podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster Junior or otherwise.

We hope you've had a good time, Lou, but please give us a point score.

Five.

Thank you.

Out of five.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is it five out of five again?

Oh, yeah.

It's got to be.

At this stage, it's got to be.

Fantastic.

Thank you very much, Lou.

Okay, lots of love.

Bye.

Bye.

Thank you so much to Lou for coming back on the show.

Make sure you go and see Lou on tour.

No kissing in the bingo hall starts in Feb 2025.

Pop onto her website to check that out.

Make sure you watch Junior Taskmaster Fridays at 8 p.m.

on channel 4, or you can catch up on channel4.com.

But thank you very much for listening.

We will be back next week to talk about episode 7, which is the second semifinal.

We will complete our final lineup next week.

Come back, have have a listen to us, go through everything that happened.

But for now, look after yourselves.

Have a lovely old time.

Bye-bye.