Ep 181. Mike Wozniak - Junior Taskmaster S1 Ep.1

Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast with me, Ed Gamble.

Or is it?

Yes, it is Ed Gamble.

I meant that to refer to the Taskmaster podcast.

Is it the Taskmaster podcast?

Well, it is, but it's a little bit different because today we're talking about Junior Taskmaster.

That's right, Junior Taskmaster has begun channel 4, Friday night, 8 p.m.

I hope you have watched this first episode.

It was an absolute delight.

What a fun, fresh take on the Taskmaster format.

I mean, look, all of these kids were brilliant.

Rose and Mike are incredible.

I can't wait to get into the nitty-gritty of this episode.

We are going to be joined by the fantastic Mike Wozniak for this episode, who is, of course, the Junior Taskmaster's assistant.

He is the little Alex Horn of the Junior Taskmaster universe.

Look, I love the episode.

It was a total blast.

I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Brilliant tasks, brilliant contestants.

I think we should just get into it really, because I want to hear loads of stuff from Mike about getting the job and how much he enjoyed it and all of that stuff.

We'll talk about it broadly and generally, then we'll talk about the specific episode.

We'll be doing this every week for Junior Taskmaster.

So make sure you watch the episodes, channel 4, 8 p.m.

Friday nights, and then come back here and listen to the podcast or watch it on channel4.com if if you miss out.

But without further ado, let's talk to Mike Wozniak about Junior Taskmaster episode one.

Welcome back, Mike Wozniak to the Taskmaster podcast.

Thank you, Ed.

But in a very different role this time, Mike.

This is exciting.

The tables have turned, haven't they?

It's very exciting.

The tables have turned.

Not for me.

The tables are in the, I'm on the same side of the table in my interviewing.

I can even see your trophy in the background.

Yes, I pop my trophy there just to remind everyone of my credentials.

But you are, of course, now the junior Taskmaster's assistant.

This is huge, Mike.

It's a huge development.

Yeah.

I'm assistant to none other than Rose Mattefeo, who you smoked in your own series, of course.

Absolutely destroyed her, but she won out in the end.

She's got an extra job out of it.

But yes, you are the junior taskmaster's assistant.

It's huge news.

In my opinion, Mike, I'm going to put it out there.

You're the perfect choice.

Yes.

Thank you, my old friends.

I've had a lovely time doing it.

I love it.

I mean,

it looks like so much fun, but I've said this to a few people.

It's just, you're one of the only people I know who wouldn't have to change their persona and vibe around children.

To be abused by children?

Yes.

And you do, there is something in the air which means that children feel free and comfortable and indeed excited to abuse you on every level.

The SAS level is high.

It's true.

I do bring out the SAS in the young.

It's always been the way that.

Why do you think that is, though?

And it's always been like this, has it?

It's always been like this.

Yeah, this isn't something we've discovered on the show.

This is the way it is in my day-to-day life as well.

I don't know what it is.

If I knew what it was, I would have changed it a long time ago.

You see,

it's not posture.

It's not my skincare routine.

It's not, am I eating too many lamb chops?

I don't know what it is exactly because I've tried everything and I can't work it out.

There's something deeply visceral that's happening.

I think it might be your posture.

Do you think it is posture?

Yeah, because you're a very upright man.

I think

you present

before you've said anything as sort of like a cartoon adult.

In a kid's book, you would be a bank manager.

I see.

Okay, and certainly not the sort of bank manager you'd be worried about.

No.

It's a very sort of provincial bank manager.

Yes.

He's on the edge.

He's flustered.

He's flustered.

He's panicking.

He's way out of his death.

Yeah.

He shouldn't be managing.

I think you can smell that.

Yeah,

this is it.

And he's gone too far.

His wife is probably angry at him most of the time.

He gets back.

He gets home and she's angry at him and the bank's falling apart.

Because he's a sweaty mess and he's staining the armpits of his shirts every day and

all the extra money he's making from the managerial job is being wasted on replacing these shirts.

It's an absolute, it's a pig's ear.

I just, I think physically, when you look at you at first, you represent authority.

And then when

you speak to you, you're a deeply silly man in a serious way.

And I think kids really, really seem to enjoy that and chime with that.

They recognize

the paper thin, the fragility of the authority, don't they yeah early early on yeah in a way that grown-ups will probably be a bit more cautious with and going what's going on here

okay i'll take a bit of time i'll analyse this i'll see what i can work it out they're like no these guys are punk

they know they instantly know that they can undermine you in every fashion um when when it came to being the taskmaster's assistant yes did you sort of

did you decide how you were going to approach it or did you just go into it and do it do it naturally in the way that you you just used to do it.

We talked about it.

We talked about it, and we were encouraged to talk about it.

We did talk about it.

And we kind of worked out over a lovely lunch that

there were probably quite a few people that would watch the show might be people who've already seen Taskmaster.

They might be the metaverse through Taskmaster.

So, therefore, they sort of know who we are already.

And therefore, were we to then on this show suddenly start sort of pretending to be Alex and Greg or doing some shtick, it might look a bit rum

from the get-go.

So, we just just decided just to carry on being who we are.

And in terms of us as a pair, we get on famously.

We have a lovely old time together.

So, we thought, well, let's just go and have a riot and see what happens.

So, what has happened has happened.

So, there's a different dynamic, definitely.

There is, I mean, Rose is naturally higher status as an individual than I am in general.

Correct.

Of course.

And she gets a higher chair, but it's not quite.

It's not quite the same kind of

sort of medieval baron with sort of whipping whipping boy relationships that you've got on the grown-up show.

Sure, but yeah,

there's some needling from Rose, I'd say, but

it feels more good-hearted.

Which is, there is some needling, and that is an important trope

of the show, of the wider Taskmaster universe, okay?

And so we must observe that trope.

And maybe, I'll admit, maybe I don't get my needled here and there, as it turns out.

By everyone on the show as well.

You're very, very comfortable with it.

Is this the sort of relationship that your kids have to you as well?

Are you very much the, are you needled at home as well?

There's an absence of respect, certainly.

And

they, I think they, because normally kids get to a certain point, normally the adolescents where they realize, or sometimes even young adults, when they realize their parents are, are fallible.

It's a disappointing moment.

I think mine was still preschool.

It's when they worked out, oh no.

Oh, this guy's this is is b team at best this guy

but that's good they they make for the best dads the b team

b team men a team

i do know there's all sorts of it causes all sorts of problems you know and what does it mean for them in the future do you know what i mean um i think i'm supposed to be the paragon of

of man of of that of that side of the coin but um no i don't think so i think if you if you meet anyone whose dad was the paragon of man but they're often the worst people.

Okay.

Well, that's reassuring.

Obviously, with this series, Junior Taskmaster, it's not the traditional format of the same contestants for every show.

We've got

heats.

We've got actual heats, tournaments, semi-finals,

a cohort of 25 of them.

Yeah.

For goodness sake.

Yeah, so the first five episodes, you meet a new cache of five each time.

And then, yeah, two from each episode go through to the semis, two semis in a final, yeah, knockout time, which is a

language that the children understood, and they understood it well.

I think I think it works quite well for the kids, partly because otherwise, we'd be making them do far too much television, and at some point, they do have to go to school.

Do you know what I mean?

And they do need to practice the trombone, okay?

These things are important as well, they don't want to get in the way of that by any means, but they they like that element, yeah.

I think it also maybe allows them to have everyone gets an opportunity to shine and and have a good time and also there won't be that you know that awful energy drop off at any point or you know sudden oh there's never there's never any energy drop off at all it's not an issue with these guys at all

energy is pulsing out of them and i mean episode one for example you've got i mean they're full of beans i mean some of them can't even keep their knees still

Was that difficult to control at any point?

Well, you pick your battles, right?

And

you realize early doors, is asking this person to keep their knees still the hill that I wish to die on?

Because definitely the energy of their knees supersedes the energy I have to stop the knees.

So there are certain things you just have to let them slide.

If John Robbins had been doing that, I'm afraid someone would have had a word, right?

Absolutely.

And maybe if he couldn't stop, they'd have framed it out.

Doesn't work with a 10-year-old.

Yeah, I don't know if they would have had a word with John, to be honest.

I think they might have got a short frame.

Yeah, again, just let him do his knees for goodness sake, keeping him happy.

Well, we should crack on and talk about this.

I mean, we'll talk about, you know, it in general more and more as we go through the episode, I am sure, Mike.

But let's talk about the first ever prize task on Junior Taskmaster, the most impressive circular thing.

This feels good.

We're almost going back to basics here.

It is, which I like.

This is a consistent thing.

I hope viewers will agree with me on this.

I don't think any of the tasks tasks or the prize tasks have been dumbed down.

I think they all could have been used on the

original show.

And this is exactly one where it's like, it's not

super weird.

It's very, very broad.

And you have the potential to sort of learn quite a lot about a person, I think, from that.

Such a broad.

Those ones are almost harder as a contestant than a really sort of silly.

I think you're right.

And it is...

It's such a good introduction to all of these contestants as well, I think.

I mean, obviously, the best introduction is when you announce their names and Laser stands up in his outfit and just he can't even stay in his chair.

He's so excited to be there.

No, why should he?

You know, he's gone to the effort of wearing an alien costume.

I wouldn't have denied him a twist and a turn.

Do you know what I mean?

Fair play if he wants to do it.

It is a fantastic outfit.

It's alien, almost glam rock alien.

Yeah, it's a very late 70s era alien, you know.

Like, do you remember in League of Gentlemen when Mark Gatis was a character who was in a band called Creme Brulee?

Exactly.

It's that level of 70s glam.

Absolutely loved it.

Let's talk about Anita's prize task, though, first of all, which is a very, very sweet and

very deep and lovely thing to bring in.

Her mum's wedding ring, and it's got spiky and sparky engraved on the inside.

Yes.

It is completely adorable and lovely, this.

As she is.

She's a complete delight and was, yeah, throughout the whole thing.

And, I mean, completely delightful, but also high stakes, you know, in the Taskmaster audience, you know.

I mean, according to the rules of the game, she's not necessarily taking that back home again, right?

No, but you do wonder if she explained that to her mum perhaps.

Oh, I didn't think that would have been explained anywhere at all.

You know, maybe the only thing that Anita herself realised once she was on stage and Rose suggested that

I might be going home with Laser.

Look, we know Anita's watched the show before.

She calls you Alex later on in the episode.

So she is well aware of how Taskmaster works.

Um, yeah, high six, because I guess there's an agreement with uh, when with regular Taskmaster, when it's comedians, that yes, the rules are that if you bring something in and then you lose that episode, the winner can take the thing home, yeah, if they want to, but there is an agreement that perhaps you won't with kids.

You can't

be guaranteed, yeah, the

caprice of the nine to eleven-year-olds is too

mobile, you know,

yeah, it's too high risk.

Yeah, this is big.

She's she's gone in with her mum's wedding ring, which I think is it's a humdinger.

What a start!

Absolutely, yeah, what a start.

And yeah, I think she is, you know, she's Anita is, she's um, she's she's she's a kind soul, and I think she's, you know, she's an emotionally intelligent kid for her age.

And, you know, I think, you know, that was reflected.

You know, Laser, on the other hand, went for the giant puffball mushroom.

And I think that

tells you something as well.

Do you know what I mean?

I loved it.

I mean look we've already got the energy and the outfit from Laser.

Then we get a giant puffball mushroom kit along with a frankly terrifying almost sci-fi level fact about puffball mushroom spores.

Underscored by the idea that they could take over the mushrooms at a moment's notice if they could simply move others.

Yeah.

It is such a fantastic reminder in the prize task that kids get obsessed with stuff.

They get obsessed with stuff and if they have juicy knowledge, juicy trivia, they're going to share it at you.

They're doing that.

The thing is, I think if I was in the studio, I'd be so fascinated by the mushroom thing, I'd just be asking more questions about the mushrooms.

I've seen all of the stuff that none of us know as well.

It's worth listening to these people.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Especially when someone's wearing an alien outfit and they're talking about mushrooms taking over.

You're like, you might actually be an alien.

You might actually have been sent in as an advanced party from an invading force.

It's on the cards.

Nayara brought in a lovely light-up globe.

Look, can you get more impressive as a circular thing than the globe that we live on, Mike?

I mean, it's the whole globe, isn't it?

I mean, unfortunately, that, yeah, it's slightly undermined by the fact that Glazer has already pointed out that, you know, the globe is on borrowed time,

according to the mushroom race.

But it was a lovely idea.

It was a a very neat idea you know she's thinking slightly outside the box i like that there are animals on the globe as well animals on the globe she was a lot of fun nayar as well she's a spicy one i like nayara a lot yeah out of out of all of the uh kids on uh this week's episode uh she was the one who enjoyed absolutely taking you apart the most i think she had a great time she had a great time

proper evils you got some proper evils because she she did it with style you know yeah she really did uh it was great and from the off as well we'll talk about

I think you always want her in your corner, right?

You know, whatever.

Yeah, I mean, those who grow up in our generation, you know, get her on side for the love of God.

You want that as one I are as your ally in life.

Yeah.

No, that was a, it was a lovely prize.

And if you think about it, the globe does incorporate all of the other things.

which have been presented.

It does, yeah, and all kinds of other circles that no one had even secular things that no one had even thought of, you know?

Yeah, every circular circle.

Persia, who likes pigeons?

Pigeons are Persia's mushrooms pigeons yeah and even more so I would say because yeah with Persia yeah it feels like having spent some time with Persia yeah pigeons are where she begins and ends and it's yes she doesn't just have uh pigeon clothing and accessories she's got all of the knowledge you could ever want about pigeons she's got pigeon anecdotes you know she's got she's got the works pigeon wise you know it's not and it's it's a life I think it's a pretty

lifelong obsession this has been going on for some time it's not just in an interest that's captured her imagination for a while.

This is

she's the real deal when it comes to pigeons.

I think to be able to own a t-shirt that just that says, I just really like pigeons okay, you've got to be pretty deep into the hobby at that point now.

She's not had that printed, she's found that, she's put the time into find that t-shirt somewhere.

How much do you think that t-shirt sells, would you say?

Because

I don't know many people who just really like pigeons okay.

I assume at some point it was a clerical era, and one of her parents has managed to find a warehouse in Indonesia somewhere where it was supposed to be thrown away but owing to another clerical era it wasn't thrown away but it is there and they've dispatched some auntie somewhere or uncle to go and fetch it and they've found it.

It is a wonderful thing to see when these kids are like really hyper-fascinated in one thing and know loads about it and are really passionate about it.

When do you think that ends in life?

Because you don't get this on normal Taskmaster, do you?

No, that's very true.

And often in grown-ups, it can be, well, I mean, sometimes in grown-ups, it can be an affectation, these things.

Sometimes, and I'm exactly the age where this happens,

it can be in response to an existential crisis

in order to find a sense of relevance and meaning.

Someone takes a deep dive into something just so that they have a handle on some aspect of the world that is slipping through their fingers.

But it's always cycling.

But it is always cycling.

Yes.

Or difficult jazz, you know?

Yeah.

But with the children, it's the real deal.

And also, it's the real deal unenforced, right?

It's not,

you know,

these are not,

there's no one cracking the whip, right?

This is not like the child has been made to practice their cello for 13 hours a day, right?

Yeah.

No one is hovering.

Imagine if it was

making them memorize

a 460

very dry academic tone about pigeons.

It's no handling.

She's just telling it herself.

If you want to get into university, you're going to have to learn everything about pigeons.

You need a gambit, do you understand?

A strong gambit, an unusual gambit that no one else has got before.

That gambit is pigeons.

Well, she brings in a pigeon's leg ring.

Fascinating.

Really interesting to hear about the pigeon's leg ring, about how their entire information is all on the leg ring.

And a lovely quip from you, Mike, about taking it off the pigeon.

Cause trouble now.

No, I don't know.

Cause trouble, right?

was there any

slip-ups in the studio with swearing amongst you amongst you and Rose.

I didn't think there were any.

That's very impressive.

But I mean, that's, I mean, the pair of us,

we're not too salty language-wise, no, generally speaking.

And,

yeah, I mean, obviously, Rose, I mean, obviously, we know that behind the scenes.

She's a docker.

Exactly.

She's the alpha docker, but

yeah, no, I think you're right there.

Yeah.

That's good.

I mean, I think I would have felt like I was on eggshells, frankly.

Let's talk about Ruben, another fantastic contestant.

This to me is the closest to a prize that a comedian might bring on

regular Taskmaster.

So the most impressive circular thing, he brings in a Shania Twain CD

covered in maple syrup because Shania is a comedian.

But with a comedian, a comedian would have spent an entire week of his or her working life trying to come up with that.

Or with an idea number 789 in the money, yes, that's a bit,

that's a bit whimsical.

Whereas Ruben, you know, it's like, yes, got it, no problem, done.

What's next?

I love it.

Let's go long late.

It's just

he's good to go.

I've dubbed Ruben, yeah.

In ways, an old head on young shoulders.

There's elements of that going going on with Ruben, but also absolute chaos and the joys of youth all happening at the same time, all jumbled up.

He was also one of the, they were all very good at this.

We were genuinely amazed and impressed how supportive they were of each other.

And he was, I'd say, he's pretty high up the league of people who would applaud other contestants, give them a lot of standing up, shake them by the hand, say well done, whatever.

He'd had a lovely manner to Darl Ruben.

Yeah.

Was that a a pep talk that was given to them before the studio records was there any sense of remember this is supposed to be fun uh try not to get upset i don't know for me it was certainly an afterthought and it's for me it was certainly like it was certainly during the first recording that when they were they were i saw them doing it that i i was like oh this is quite it's quite good i wonder if someone's mentioned this or we certainly should have done this i think yeah they were they were generally

the the vibe backstage was generally speaking very positive there was a lot of like don't worry about the competition thing because people are worried about, I mean, we are forcing, not forcing, but putting children into a competition violence.

We don't want people to be upset and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, there's a bit of expectation management, but the thing of how supportive they were of each other,

I think that took everyone a bit by surprise, how good they were across the board.

Yeah, it's lovely.

And these, to be honest, these prize tasks, obviously, this is episode one, these all took me by surprise because they were all really good.

Very, very strong.

Nayara got one point, Persia got the two points, Laser got the three points, Anita got the four points, and Ruben's Shania Twain CD, covered in maple syrup, gets the five points.

I was wondering how

did Rose find, and we will ask her when she comes on the podcast inevitably,

the idea of scoring the children and

having to deliver, especially the one to two points

to those kids.

Well,

I think because she isn't a sociopath,

she was horrified by the idea of it.

And I think particularly before we sort of first went on stage, I got the impression there was a bit of a, hmm, okay, what will happen actually at this point?

And I think, even particularly with that first one, because

it's easy clearly to score someone when they've got to get the number of, you know, red dots on the pelican's beak.

Do you know what I mean?

You just count the dots away, you go.

But it's so subjective.

And as you say, they were all good.

So I think that that first giving Nayara one point, I mean,

I think she said something quite positive to Naya.

I think she just swept on through as quickly as she could.

The thing that does help is that they know what's coming, right?

So they know the tasks they did.

They all know that they had a little moment somewhere where they did something impressive or funny.

So I think people, they didn't get too hung up on that.

Yeah, they are much hardier than I was expecting, to be honest.

Stuff seems to roll off their back much easier than it does with the community.

They're the right age, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're kind of, yeah, they're old enough to have been around the block, these guys, you know.

and very very smart as well it's quite scary now last but not least Ruben so I've bought in a Shania Twin C D covered in lipel syrup

wow okay

so who's the hardest person to impress

It's the old lyrical curve.

Aha, yes.

He's pandering to the elder millennial in me.

Well, I think one of the most iconic people who is the most hard to impress is Shania Twain.

Because of her hit saying goal.

Anyway.

Because she's Canadian, decided to cover it in maple syrup.

That is amazing.

Do your parents like a bit of Shania Twain or is that just...

Well, occasionally they just pop on a couple bangs.

Do you know what a CD is?

Yes, I have a He D player at home.

Do you?

What kind of CDs do you have?

McFly and Backstreet Boy.

Are you all time travellers?

What is going on?

Yeah, the ancient music of McFly.

Task one.

This is an absolute classic to kick off the series with.

Get the most different things in Mike's hat.

You must not step on the red-green.

Most things in Mike's hat wins.

You have eight minutes.

This broadly seems to have been designed to make you look as silly as possible Mike you're on a turntable with a big hand that is yeah that would that would yeah it feels like that was part of it yes a big hat that was sort of pushed down uh to be secure so my ears are at right angles yeah

and then it got pushed down even further during some of that

to sort of tiny fleshy wings

this this is great because it leaves it leaves so many options there's so many routes for the kids to find little loopholes little hacks.

There's some interpretation to be had from the different things.

It gives them a proper sandbox to play in and just give and show their different personalities by what they do.

Oh, yeah.

And I think with the live audience in the studio, when they were watching these VTs,

I think it was Anito who was the first person to take off their hats.

and realize it didn't need to stay on my head.

So there's a genuine round of applause and a sort of gasp.

Yeah.

And you could sense in the room they're like, oh,

okay.

Okie dokie.

dokie fine it's not all just sort of silly silly little kiddie stuff these guys are these guys have got game okay this is yes

this is the real deal so that was a lovely moment and was quite energizing to them on the stage as well at the time yeah i bet getting that round of applause must have felt incredible um i really liked anita in the studio after after persia's had been shown and Peugeot puts loads of the same thing in.

I think it's balls of wool all go in there.

Using a platform and a step, marvelous.

That's good to get over the red-green, so many of the same thing, and then immediately tries to argue that they're different things to different colours.

And then Anita going, I agree with Persia

before hers had been shown, like, yeah, right.

Really, really funny.

That's, I enjoyed

that kind of stuff.

Rose was very good at that.

She'd be onto them with this kind of stuff.

You know,

they couldn't play her like a pipe pipe in the way they could play me like a pipe those kids and that was oh well you bought it you're like yeah that was a really interesting point

looking back on loads of interactions with your own kids going like oh god i'm absolutely giving the run around here

um yeah very strong effort from persia uh gets loads of things in there but of course we are saying that a lot of those things were the same thing indeed which is part of that as you will know is part of the the contestant madness madness.

Do you know what I mean?

Even if you're doing really well in a task, sometimes there's some little word or detail that in the heat of it, you've forgotten.

Yeah.

But I think Persia had a point, you know, because you know, it depends how you're defining a thing, doesn't it?

Well, and also, I think she would have meant that quite genuinely because Persia's got such a brilliant brain.

I love Persia's brain.

I think she is just sort of perceiving things just slightly different to the rest of us and just seeing details that others might be taking for granted.

Yeah.

I mean, this reminded me of Rod Gilbert,

they had to put different things in

a bin and then had to make a picture out of it.

And he put in loads of, was it leaves?

I think it was leaves or stones or something, and claimed that they were all different because they were all different shapes, leaves.

I genuinely think that's what that's what he thought.

They are different things.

They don't occupy the same space in the universe.

And to be presented with the counter-argument to that would have seemed like madness to him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah, no, I'm with Persia on this one, I think.

And not enjoyable to hear some of our energy using the word yarn at all, really.

Even the googly eye argument, she said that the googly eyes are always going to be in different positions because they're googly eyes.

So they are.

That would suggest that one googly eye is a different thing every time you move it.

It's a great compliment to the makers of googly eyes that they she feels there are so there are infinite permutations of googly eyes

there are hella snowflakes of crafts.

Yeah, I loved Anita's hack of taking the hat off.

Someone else did as well.

Laser did as well.

She went, she went,

ever the empath.

She went and plucked it off from the top.

He plucked it off from the bottom.

Yeah.

Yeah, you looked genuinely scared when Laser was taking the hat off with the grabber.

Was scared.

Was scared.

It was an enormous, huge pincer thing that he wasn't fully in control of.

I was very vulnerable.

Yeah, his energy is more chaotic than Anita's, so I can imagine when that was snapping around near your charge.

I mean, look, I obviously love Laser's vibe.

Just taking the hat off, clever, fills it to the brim, and then can't help himself, decides he's got a bit of time left.

So he grabs a pen with the pincers and starts trying to draw in your face.

Totally understand that energy.

The ultimate disrespect, I think.

Ads nothing, even got him disqualified, wasn't worried about it at all.

Yeah, it was the

hubris of drawing on your face, of going like, yeah, I've got a bit of time to mess around now.

Let's draw on this chump's face.

And that's what got him disqualified.

Yeah, he was happy to lose a bird, wasn't he?

At the end, you know, he got caught out and he's like, fair play.

Yeah.

Reuben builds a path out of some bricks.

These bricks, I think they're going to be the downfall.

You know, these rubber bricks bricks that people think they can step on,

they're not to be trusted.

And they look like they should be to be trusted because they are bricks, but they simply are not.

And yeah,

they let Reuben down a bit.

I really like how

the sort of almost adult instinct he has, where he nearly falls off and jumps off the red green and then centers himself.

Yeah.

And he sort of goes, whoo, okay.

And then has to sort of steady himself to then carry on with that.

He has an understanding of the close shave.

Yeah.

Most kids that age don't, particularly.

Yeah.

Yeah, most kids would just plow on.

He'd go, okay, Ruben, you got away with it that time.

Again, the argument that the fish are different things because they are different species of fish, which I totally understand.

Yeah, fair play.

But he did step on the red green an awful amount, mainly because of the use of tinfoil, which he has renamed Klingfilm.

He had, yeah, he had

Rubens Klingfilm, and there was a bit of a breeze on the day.

It's not a reliable outdoor flooring surface when it's not stuck down.

But again, a very, very good effort from him.

Nayara, this is where we find out the

relationship between you and Nayara is

a rocky path.

She needed someone to blame.

Yeah, needed someone to blame.

All the information's on the task.

You try and give her that line.

She's not having that at all.

I take it.

Was this the first task that you filmed, or was this a bit later on in the day?

Of course, yeah, because it was the first task in the first episode of the series, Ed.

Yeah, so this is the first task you filmed on the day.

That was the first task of the whole thing.

I mean, we do it all in order, Ed?

We wouldn't just film it and then edit it later and then work out what the order should be afterwards.

What?

Right.

Strange question.

Then, if it was the first task that you filmed in the whole series, how come Nayara is already exasperated with you?

Bearing in mind, she would have just met you.

Because

she comes out of the house already annoyed with your ancestors.

Because I've said hello to her when she arrived there, and she's an excellent judge of character.

Character-wise, I think she comes out of this task really, really well.

This is something else I was impressed by because this is a potential tearjerker, right?

Hot on the heels of getting one on the prize task.

She's headed for

a potential zero.

She took it in good humor.

She'd laughed about it.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

I mean, I'd love that.

I thought, she's a good kid, this one.

Do you know what I mean?

She's got some metal because it's being broadcast in front of this audience, this failure, after she's seen some other kids do something really clever.

Yeah.

There's other kids who would feel potentially humiliated by that.

Yeah.

And, you know, burst into tears.

She's just like, yeah, an off day.

And then, yeah, and laughs.

I loved her.

Brilliant.

I love that before her task is even shown, just going, Can I just say something before we show this?

I wasn't thinking straight.

It's so funny.

It's so much self-awareness.

And I guess it might help that she was doing a lot of funny stuff deliberately in the task and was like throwing you evil.

She's one of those,

she's playful, yeah, cheeky.

Clearly, very popular in the studio, you know.

So, yeah, yeah, for sure.

But no, everyone's effort was great, all so different.

It's lovely to see that brains are so different, even at that age.

Like, everyone's everyone's doing different things is great.

But unfortunately, it was zero points for Ruben and Laser.

I have some issues with the scoring here, Mike.

You don't like pity points or bonus points, do you generally?

Well, no, I think Nayara should have got three points.

Oh, really?

Because she didn't fail the task.

She still did the task, even though she didn't get anything into it.

The task is get the most different things into Mike's hat.

She gets zero, but she still does the third best.

Interesting.

So I don't think it's not a pity point.

She should have got three official points.

Oh, that's very, I mean,

blimey.

Reddit's

absolutely on fire, isn't it?

Once

once this is out in the public domain,

you know me, Mike.

I like to get the internet fired up about Junior Taskmaster.

But Persia got the four points and Anita got the five points.

Anita's journey in this episode is very interesting, I think, because

she is incredibly sweet at the top, and that lovely prize task.

And then, by the final task, it is like guns out, total

absolutely.

Yeah,

who are we gonna see now, Mike?

Next up, it's Anita and Laser.

What have you got?

Got a few paws to maybe throw at your face, or no, not your face, I mean, your hands.

This is not going well.

Um oh, got one in

sorry, Mike, but I'm gonna have to take your hat off.

So

yes, I got the hat off!

Yes, I got the hat off.

Hello.

I don't know why I'm doing this.

What are you doing?

Trying to draw you.

Too short.

Okay, I'm pretty sure.

There you go.

Yes.

That's a real shame.

I just go.

Thank you, Mike.

Well, we start to see some of the madness in this.

This is a great, messy task.

Task two, work out what two things are in each pile of mash.

You may eat one, sniff one, lick one, put your little finger in one, and throw one on the floor.

Most correct answers wins.

Your time starts now.

Again, this feels like a classic Taskmaster task.

Very much so.

Very much so.

And

if you'd never seen Taskmaster, you might read that and think, well, what's how can a group of five people do that differently?

You've just told them exactly what to do.

So how can that?

And then

there we are.

We have Anita who seems like she's like the expert of throwing mashed potato across a room.

Like it reveals all of its secrets immediately.

As opposed to Ruben who does

a Ruben who does, I think, what I would have done and just sort of slammed it like a sort sort of like a puck.

So it's holding its secrets even more firmly than it ever did before.

Nothing spilled out of it.

It's just sort of dense and perfectly smooth on the top.

I had great sympathy with him.

Yeah,

he doesn't get an amazing amount right.

He only gets two out of ten in this.

But he seems to have a lot of fun while he's doing it.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and he's giving it his all, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the smelling, he's just like, well, it just smells like mashed potatoes.

I mean, he's got a point now.

He's got an absolute point.

Like,

how can you guess anything from smelling mashed potato?

The dominant smell will be mashed potato.

But, yeah, Anita's chuck is incredible.

She really goes for this, but she sniffs it and gets brusseled sprouts.

I was impressed by that.

Yeah, I don't, I've never thought of them as having a particularly strong smell.

I mean, you're the food expert here.

Well, if they've been boiled, they are quite smelly, I'd say.

I think that's what puts a lot of people off, actually.

Really, is it the nose?

Okay.

With brussely sprouts, yeah.

And then obviously they've got quite a sort of bitter.

I've never thought of them as having much of an aroma at all.

Well, even when they're boiling, like the steam that I'm also able to get through them quite well, so maybe, yeah, maybe I just have a bad sense of smell.

Maybe that's maybe that's why I'm able to smell it.

Yeah, maybe that's it.

I mean, look, I don't want to take it down a food track too far, but they're much better roasted.

You get all of the pleasant, uh, the pleasant taste and also the texture of a crispy outer Brussels leaf.

But do you cheat as or do you sprinkle little bits of bacon or nuts on them?

Are you one of those guys?

Sometimes, yeah.

I can, uh, yeah, I'd chop them in half, olive oil, roast them in the tin with some pancetta, maybe put some, maybe put some parmesan on the top towards the end.

This is what we're doing.

This is why we're giving the rise of the far eye, mate.

My favourite thing about

Anita's effort is it says you can smell it, but

what bit of the tar said you had to pop it on the floor to smell it like a doggy?

Amazing.

Amazing.

Just such an interesting interpretation of it.

Loved it.

She got an awful lot of potato on her face, that kid.

Because she seems, she's like, initially, initially, she seems very sort of like calm and very sweet, like I say, but it seems like she really relished the opportunity to chuck some stuff around and get free.

I think so.

And I think she, she's, yeah, she's got a bit of grit, doesn't it, as well?

So I think if there's, you know, when she's presented with, okay, a bit of a puzzle or a bit of a bit of a challenge, she's going to...

She's going to, well, what's the facial equivalent of rolling your sleeves up?

She's going to, yeah, she's going to roll her snut down,

you know, and she's just going to get into it.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think what's good about this task as well is that it gives the kids free license to be messy, as with a lot of the tasks, to be fair.

And they can do things that, you know, polite society would tell them that kids shouldn't be doing most of the time.

Yeah, and I think Anita is the sort of person I could easily imagine in life people might underestimate because she's, you know, because she's sort of small and sweet and, you know,

and comical, but she's, kids got grit.

for sure.

Yeah.

Were you a messy child, Mike?

Would you have enjoyed doing this when you were a kid?

I would have enjoyed this immensely as a child.

Yeah.

I was actually astonished that no one threw a large lump of mashed potato at me or the camera.

That was the...

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That was a day where I definitely brought a

change of clothes just on the off chance.

But again, this is the thing because none of them, they weren't really playing to the camera.

What you get in Taskmaster yourself once you're in the task, that's all you're thinking about.

Yeah.

If there wasn't this sort of ticking clock or whatever, maybe one of them, oh, this might be funny to do, but they're just thinking about, I'm going to get the answer to the I'm going to do the task, I'm going to do it brilliantly, my way.

Well, it's the it's the laser instinct, isn't it, of drawing on your face?

You would have thought, yeah, that's that's done because he finished the task, you know, that's you know, to the but he did a very good job in this task because he is the one who cracks who cracks the uh the little cheat code and finds the answers all written on the table, which was very, very impressive.

I feel like

did you get the impression that they'd all watched the show before?

There's quite a mix, actually.

There were some who'd seen an awful lot of the show, and there were some who'd seen a bit of the show.

There are a couple of

out there who I, to my astonishment,

I hadn't really seen much of the show before getting the gig.

I assumed that all of them would be Taskmaster fans.

But yeah, there are a couple of outliers who just sort of, I think, yeah, sort of watched an episode or two on the way to the gig.

Because it feels like, I think Laser even says they might be written down somewhere.

Laser definitely was, yeah, yeah, knew the deal and knew that tables are things to be checked on all sides.

And he's got a great outfit on for tasks as well, the skeleton, the skeleton get up.

I'm jealous of that.

I wish I'd gone with skeleton tracky.

It's amazing.

Yeah, stunning.

He finds the answers.

Nayara, heartbreaking.

Walks around to the one side of the table.

Yeah.

Doesn't quite see them and just carries on.

Still does very well.

Still gets five out of ten, which is impressive without seeing the answers written down.

Still does very well.

And you really want her to find it at that point.

Do you know what I mean?

Because she's, you know,

she's had a tough start to the episode so far.

You know, you want to, you wanted to.

I was willing her to find them, but no, you have to have the David Attenborough, you have to, you know, you can't defeat them.

Of course, yeah.

Is that how you felt?

At any point when you were filming the task, did you think,

as an adult man, I should really step in here to help these children in peril and then had to hold yourself back?

Repeatedly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Often the other the internal monologue was going, this is

ethically ethically concerning at the very least.

Yeah, there's a later episode that

the listener wouldn't have seen yet where they're just

pouring water onto a fat fire and stuff as well, and you're just standing back letting them do that.

Yeah.

Who gets the can of petrol?

Do you know what I mean?

Persia, I was really impressed with this, guess his cucumber on site and gets Brussels sprouts from sniffing.

I think it's like she can sort of see the matrix, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And my favourite thing was, which made me suspect that maybe Persia has seen the show before.

Guess is boiled egg, but then is so specific about the type of boiled egg because she doesn't want to get marked down.

So it's boiled egg that's that's boiled but still slightly runny.

Really, really strong.

Our own footnotes.

And it's a good idea.

Play it safe.

And gets three out of ten right.

So great efforts from all.

Laser gets the five points.

Nayara with a much needed four points.

Anita with three points.

Persia also with three points.

And Ruben with two points.

Wow.

Wow.

So what a lot so many.

Okay.

It's a classic game of what's in the mesh, isn't it?

Yep.

Yeah.

Little finger.

We all have little fingers since we're kids.

Yeah.

And also, even though you said it's your classic game of what's in the mash, it's also hashtag horrible.

Wow.

You're really bad at making mash.

You need to go on cooking lessons.

Not enough butter.

Yeah, he needs lots more butter.

Excuse me.

That is an ancient generation-old recipe from Mike's family.

You were being mean to him earlier and now what you're doing is you're defending him.

Yeah.

Hey, listen, I don't know if I'm coming or going and maybe that's the way I like it.

Task three, it's another broad task which really gives us an insight into all of their brains.

Hit this target in the most impressive way.

You have 15 minutes, your time starts.

Yeah, I particularly like this one.

I generally speaking had a particular affection for anything where it was so broad that

there could be a bit of creativity and imagination, and we might, okay, we're going to see an element of this.

There's no way two people do the same thing, and we're going to learn something about you here, kiddo.

Loved it.

And what, yeah, what I really like about it is that kids have that imagination, but also they don't have a filter in between the imagination and broadcasting the thought.

So

there's no sense of, I could do that.

Actually, that's mad, and I can't even explain why I've thought that.

And there's no

have to explain any of the sort of nights' moves that are going on in their

brain.

Which is why Ruben, like it was the most logical thing in the world, grabs an umbrella, popped some googly eyes on the end of it, and then just

with absolute certainty as well.

There's no doubt.

He did it as if it was like, well, everyone's going to do this.

He's like, okay, okay, I understand the task.

I've got it.

Let's do this thing.

Do you know what I mean?

It's like a, it reminds me in some ways of a sort of a kind of World War I-era, sort of a young lieutenant.

Do you know what I mean?

He's only had two days of military training, but he did go to the right school.

Do you know what I mean?

So he sort of feels confident.

He trusts his instincts.

Yeah.

And I loved his instincts.

It was almost like a surrealist art piece.

Oh, it was beautiful.

Really, really fun.

It was a thing of great beauty.

And he was very happy with it when he's done.

He sees that.

He's already all right, done.

Off we go.

What's next?

Tick.

On to the next thing.

I've done right.

So I've done my umbrella with googly eyes on, pop it in the target.

And yeah, let's carry on.

Yeah.

I love Nayara's attitude of you saying, well, you're obviously, I guess occasionally with the more creative ones, you might have had to ask them some questions or maybe some little things just to.

I'd have been really annoying her the whole time and trying to engage her in conversation and chatting, particularly her then, because she obviously had quite a few ideas and was

losing faith in something.

And then she'd try something else and have a go at this.

And so it's a very different approach to Reuben.

And yeah, and during that time, I'd have been asking about her about what she's thinking and just trying to make small talk.

And that would have been really irritating, I would imagine.

Yeah.

But even the initial question of what do you find impressive, she's nothing.

She doesn't.

And I'm sure there's plenty of things she does find impressive, but she just couldn't be bothered to tell you.

She also said she claimed she was good at fighting, which I do believe.

And

I think the fighting is largely with her brothers, I seem to remember.

Yeah, I think if you grow up with brothers, I guess there's probably an element of that.

But I thought the boxing gloves was good.

She does a sort of big spinning punch to the target.

She's not happy.

She can do better.

Boxing gloves come off aggressively just thrown into the floor just like no i can do better than that i mean often sometimes that can be a male female thing right where the the the lad is like i've done that that's perfect

uh the girl might be like hmm i've done that that was good maybe i could improve okay again it's quite a different attitude it's quite

starkly illustrated on that i did yeah on on this show it's I probably will mention it a few more times in the in the series, but now and again you do see a gender divide, which is almost the sort of very stereotypical one, where the boys are just like chaos, caning it around, grabbing everything they can, just like smashing stuff up.

And the girls seem like they

constructed their own hot air balloon and worked out how to make it float from first principles.

Yeah, all that stuff.

Or just the way they are in the studio and the way they interact, they feel like they could get an office job

in quite a sea, in quite a sort of high-floating international organization.

Yeah,

they feel like they could operate in adult society.

Yeah, be sort of carrying something somewhere.

Yeah.

So Nayara in the end goes with the cartwheels,

throws the blue ball and says, boo-yah.

It's good stuff.

Perfectly executed cartwheels.

Really great.

Yeah.

Lovely to see a bit of gymnastics.

You don't see that on the main show either.

Do you know what I mean?

Very, very rare that

people have got that gazelle element that they can bring out.

Yeah, I just, well, we had Emma Siddi in the most recent series did some cartwheels.

Yes.

This is true.

It's not commonplace.

No, it's not.

I mean, you'd worry, wouldn't you?

Yeah.

If anyone's doing cartwheels, it's normally leading up to quite a serious injury in the main show.

I can't think of anyone I wouldn't be worried.

If they started to do it, yes.

They started doing a cartwheel, I'd be genuinely worried about it.

Stop, please.

Please, please, Ramish.

Please, Robert, you've got a lot of work on this year.

Please don't injure yourself.

Persia, again, very, very set on what she's doing.

Yeah.

Cool plus cool equals impressive.

And almost immediately has constructed an entire

world that is a world that, again, no explanation.

No.

But

she's telling us a little bit what's going on.

She's not telling us where the idea, where the Mr.

Eggman was a little fishies.

It really appealed to me.

I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but just she understood, and that was enough for me, I think, that

you drain one of the eggs, you stuff it full of fishies, fishies, you cover it in foam, googly eyes.

That's Eggman.

Chuck all the other eggs.

The final one you throw is Eggman.

Done.

It's got a beginning, it's got a middle, it's got an end.

Yeah, yeah.

The only thing I think was Eggman was almost the leader of the eggs, and so was the last one to sort of sacrifice himself to the target.

I don't, yeah, but that's trying to apply a normal

logic, isn't it?

But it's, it's coming from somewhere else.

I loved Laser trying to chuck something from quite far away to be impressive and then goes, no, and just smashes it up, covers it in paint, calls it his worst enemy.

Just the maximalist chaotic approach was perfect.

Yeah, he went for the, yeah, it's like, what do they call those, those rooms where you just smash things up.

It reminded me of when people

rage room, yeah, he went a bit rage room on it.

Like, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

It looked really cathartic.

I felt myself sort of sympatico with Laser.

I understood a lot of his instincts, I think.

Now, this is where the Anita story, this episode, really, really comes to a bloody head.

Firstly, she calls you Alex, which I know has been in all the promotional material for this show because it is the perfect opening clip for Junior Taskmaster.

Hi, Alex.

And your perfect reaction of just who's Alex, who's Alex.

And her.

Yeah, she's briefly mortified, like you might imagine, a a sort of little, oh, I'm terribly sorted.

Do you want to?

Really great.

I also loved back in the studio, Rose really buying into the who's Alex thing where you'll go, I don't know who Alex is.

And the kids really absolutely fall for that line.

They're going, Alex home.

He hosts the other one.

Again, we see the shaving foam.

Shaving foam, a very popular implement

and material in junior task.

This is something we've learned through the series.

There definitely are things to which they are attracted.

If they're there in the shed,

even if they're kind of buried away, they'll find things like googly eyes and shaving foam and something.

They have a magnetic pull.

Shaving foam, I guess, is fun to spray, right?

And it's messy.

And also, it's not the sort of thing you really come across and are able to use as a kid in daily life.

I'm getting a pretty serious bollocking.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So why, why not?

So the story of this one, she creates an extra target using an X, which you very sort of subtly and under your breath are going, well, I'm going to use it.

You don't want to use any actual target.

To her credit, she doesn't engage with my pedantry, you know,

because what can you do?

She's busy.

She's busy.

She doesn't give it the time of day, which is the best thing to do with pedants of any kind.

is just leaking.

You're not happy with the bullshit.

You just stew their own sneaky little juices.

So there's a lot of sort of blood red painted over that.

Then some shaving foam, which she doesn't seem sure why she's put the shaving foam on there.

But again, she's just channeling.

Yeah.

Yeah, just channelling.

And then you're a criminal.

I am a criminal.

Yes.

And she, you stab the, you stab it with an umbrella and the hand is put in front of the target and she pretends you've stabbed her finger finger off.

Exactly, exactly right.

And screams in a sort of deranged, violent way.

We don't know what happens to the criminal.

We don't know whether or not the criminal got away with it necessarily.

It's certainly a cautionary tale.

You know, look out, look out for criminals, kids.

Look out for criminals.

And if you are a criminal, look out for targets because it's probably a setup.

It's probably bait.

It could well be bait.

Yeah.

I did really like her screaming about her finger.

And then.

Yeah, and she's able to go to that.

She's able to go dark like that, no problem.

Yeah, okay, and then light immediately because you say the task's over, and she goes, Okay, okay, bye, lovely, cheery, delightful,

one of the smiliest people that Leeds has ever exploited.

Yeah, oh, she's brilliant.

Two minutes, a difficult one to judge, I think.

I guess this was a tricky old one to judge.

Yeah, this is what I so I absolutely loved doing the tasks with the kids.

I was also thrilled that I did not, like a coward, have to do any score

at all.

I was absolutely thrilled about that.

Yeah, well, yeah, Rose does a really good job of it.

I think I think she's hit the balance.

She's hit the balance perfectly here.

So, Ruben gets one point, Laser gets two points, Nayara gets three points, Persia gets four points, and Anita for the criminals target gets five points.

Which one is it?

Booyah.

Booya.

See ya, booya.

Sometimes you just agitate me.

Bye.

Bye.

Here we go.

Live task.

This is incredible.

I bet in the studio, you couldn't believe your luck when this happened.

Of course not.

I mean,

this is like the magic touch of Alex Horn generally.

Like, there's so many tasks where you read them and think, wow, you might read.

Well, if you weren't, hadn't been through the Taskmaster world, you might read and think, well, that's just going to be bad television, isn't it?

That's just

knows.

And it's,

it was bang on.

Absolutely bang on.

Sit silently with your eyes shut for 30 seconds, then wave and smile at Rose for 30 seconds, then lie on the floor and pretend to swim for 30 seconds.

Most accurate 30-second average wins.

So, look, obviously, they're all sort of there or thereabouts, especially Reuben, that's amazing.

30.17 seconds on average.

He's a walking clock, that boy, which is probably his military.

Fairly incredible.

To be perfect at that, I think.

And I think I feel, I bet you he could also in later life, he'll learn how to sort of read barometric pressures with his armpits.

Do you know what I mean?

He's just tuned in.

He's calibrated, right, that kid.

Yeah.

He nails it and he's happy.

And I just thrilled him because he was very happy with his umbrella thing.

He only got one point for that, and he comes out, he wins the studio task, he's absolutely thrilled.

He's made up.

Lovely, lovely moment for Ruben.

Everyone gets a lovely moment.

Everyone gets a lovely moment.

Then along comes Panja, who is

it's the stillness, I think, is what the calm, as if she's in a like she's she's become a sort of taskmaster monk of some sort.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, she's gone so she's just enjoying, she's enjoying it and closes her eyes during the wave and smile as well, even though she doesn't need to.

She's centered.

Which, if she had her eyes open, she might have been able to sense a little bit more that.

She could have sensed that perhaps audio-wise, but

she's not letting any of that disturb her.

She's doing her thing.

Any grown-up hearing what was going on would be, huh?

Something's going on.

You're laughing at something.

Is it me?

Am I making a pig's?

Is it me?

She's not.

Are they laughing because everyone else has finished too early?

She's just completely centered.

She's found this perfect Zen space.

People take

thousands to go to Puna for and try and discover.

She got there immediately.

It's a joy to watch.

On average, one minute, 20 seconds for each thing.

Now, obviously, we see an edited version.

How did that feel in the studio?

This is why Rose and I began engaging in small talk because we're.

Yeah.

Most of the kids had finished.

Should have finished five minutes ago.

People have got to go home.

You know,

it's a bit of music to banner.

How long is this going to go on for?

Does she think we said hours or something?

Well, it's when everyone else has finished their swim and she's still doing the wave and smile.

I'm like, this is amazing.

This is incredible to watch.

And you know, after having seen the shut your eyes and wave and smile, you know, the swim's not going to be too short.

It's not going to be a, yeah, it's not going to be a sprint 25 meters, is it?

No, it's going to be the channel.

Fantastic.

I mean, yeah, so funny.

So well done from her.

But it was, of course, one point for Persia, two points for Anita, three points for Nayara, four points for Laser, and the big five for Ruben, meaning Nayara gets 12 points, Ruben gets 13 points, Laser and Persia both with 14 points, and Anita taking the episode home with 19 points, meaning that Anita goes straight through to the semifinal.

We have a tie-break situation, 14 points each for both Laser and Persia, meaning that only one of them can get through to the semi-final.

So there's a tiebreaker, which is a situation that we had to be ready for, of course.

We didn't want at all.

And then, lo and behold, there it is on episode one.

Yes.

And the backup plan is always

quick and snappy because you've done the show by then, right?

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, were there no tiebreaker tasks filmed in the house then?

Was the plan always to be?

Yes, we did do tiebreaker tasks in the house as well, but we also did live ones.

And yeah, so we had all kinds of backups up our sleeves and our pockets.

Yeah.

for that one we went we went live yeah guess how much money is in mike's pocket closest wins it feels so arbitrary do you know what i mean it's not you know yeah because there's sometimes a tobacco is where there is a way of getting an edge on it you know there's a distance to something or yeah you can make more of an educated guess on something but for this one it's it's pretty arbitrary yeah but i always like to hear how kids interact with money and amounts of money this is true Because £10 and £7.

Really round, really round numbers.

I think laser, because the jangle, there was a jangle.

It was very, very faint.

I don't know if you can really hear it on the episode.

It was a very faint jangle.

Yeah.

I wonder if it was so faint that maybe he thought there wasn't a jangle and there was a note.

Yeah, because that would be the sort of thing you would do.

I didn't ask him.

I just wonder whereas Persia, of course,

chooses a prime number.

£7, but it was £3.12, Mike.

They obviously thought you were being paid way more than you actually were for the show.

Meaning, Persia goes through to the semi-final.

Congratulations to Persia.

But sad to lose Laser.

Sad to to lose Naura and Ruby.

All of them, yeah, but all of them were completely delightful to the two that did go through.

I'm happy to say, off stage and on.

Yeah, yeah, so good on them.

That's lovely.

I mean, you know, when we're off, Mike, you can tell me, you know, about all the fights and stuff and all the cattiness backstage and stuff.

But yeah, I understand for the public, we'll say the kids are all very sad.

I'm sure you put the boot in with the kids who got kicked out of the things she said to them.

You could have lost.

Yeah.

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

We will drag you back on another time, I'm sure.

It's a pleasure.

I hope people enjoy it.

I'm excited about it.

I love doing it.

And

I hope the Taskmaster Massif

approve.

Well, I don't see why they wouldn't because it's more Brilliant Taskmaster.

Yeah, they feel a lot of ownership over the show, I think.

Do you know what I mean?

Which is understandable with all the home tasking and all that kind of stuff that goes on.

And they're part and parcel of the show.

So

I hope to God they like it.

Well, look, I think they will.

The tasks are brilliant.

You and Rose are brilliant together.

It feels fresh, but also familiar.

And the kids are all great.

So I don't, yeah.

And I think the casting of the kids has been very, very good because there's not that sort of precocious drama school feel to it.

They all seem very natural.

There are none of them there.

They did a good job and they held their nerve.

So they didn't go down the Dawson's Creek route and get sort of 23-year-olds dressed up as children.

You know, all the things that they could have done, they didn't do.

I maintain maintain that this show would have been much better if, in the first episode, it was four children and Paul Chelsea.

But we interact with Paul as if he is a child.

I wanted that to flagpole for series two.

Yeah, if you would.

Cheers, mate.

Cheers.

Thank you, Mike.

Of course, there are seven more episodes of Junior Taskmaster to come every Friday at 8 p.m.

on Channel 4.

Mike, of course, we ask our our guests to rate their experience on the Taskmaster podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster.

We're just going to keep doing that.

We're not going to switch up the format for juniors.

So

you shouldn't.

It's an easy five for me.

It's always a five.

Thank you.

I've got a lovely slice of bed, don't I?

Come on.

Thank you, Mike.

It's lovely to have a slice of you as well.

Yes.

Bye-bye, Mike.

Thank you so much to Mike for coming on.

I mean, hopefully we get Mike on again soon.

I mean, look, he was there for all of the tasks.

We need to hear more from him.

We need to pick his brains.

We've got more brilliant guests coming up.

We have the wonderful Emma Siddy on next week.

She is, of course, a Taskmaster contestant, a brilliant comedian, very, very good friends with the Junior Taskmaster herself, Rose Matafeo.

So we will talk to her next week about episode two of Junior Taskmaster.

So make sure you watch channel4.com or Friday nights, channel 4, 8 p.m., and we will see you next week.

Bye-bye.