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TV Quickfire: Comedian Sarah Millican on how she enjoyed new series of Taskmaster

Comedian Sarah Millican joins a stellar line up of famous faces for the latest series of Taskmaster. We found out more about how she got on...

Sarah Millican on Taskmaster
Sarah Millican on Taskmaster

ARE YOU A TASKMASTER FAN?

I'VE watched it from day one. Sometimes when you do programmes, you have to watch it the night before. But this was easy – because I'd already watched it, I knew exactly how it worked.

Although, even when you know the show well, you still have no idea how you're going to react. You have no idea what your brain's going to do when you get in the room.

DID YOU HAVE A STRATEGY?

Well, I wanted to have fun because that feels like an important part of doing this. I also checked under every table. Every single task. And on at least one task that did pay off. Is there anything better than finding something that a man couldn't find? I didn't realise that was so high up on my list of things I love to do, but it was. But there was one where I found something taped under the table and thought, "A-ha!" and I pulled it down, and there was a note saying, "Hello, Sarah." I was like, "Ah, they've got me." Smartarses.

Also, every day when I did the tasks, I made notes afterwards. One of them was "concentrate", so I obviously didn't concentrate enough and wanted to remind myself for the next day. Another one said, "Take the task with you". I had pockets in my dress, so I put it in my pocket. So my strategy was always trying to improve.

WAS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WAY YOU AND DARA APPROACHED TASKS COMPARED WITH THE YOUNGER THREE?

When I saw Dara folding up a tarpaulin efficiently on his task, I was like, "That's exactly what I did". It's interesting. I don't know if it's a gender-based thing, but men often think, "Of course I'm going to be good at this", and women are a bit like, "Well, I'll give it a go but I'm not really sure". I feel that's how we're built, conditioned.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GREG?

Sort of snidey. I know he's the Taskmaster and all that, but it's Greg. I used to gig with Greg. But then sometimes he'd be really mean. The prize task was really odd, because you all think you've got a brilliant idea until you're sitting there and you really have no idea until you see what everybody else's is, and then you're like, "I still don't really know how he's going to grade these". To be told the thing that is a treasured possession of yours, is just, "No, terrible". And then occasionally, you'd get one that he liked, and you'd feel a bit better.

AND HOW DID YOU GET ON WITH ALEX?

Oh, he's adorable. He's obviously the brains behind the whole thing, so you know that he's incredibly smart. I gigged with him a few times back in the day, and he was always a joy to be around. It was really nice seeing him at the tasks but every now and again, he'd really mess you up. There was a balloon one I'm still a little bit annoyed about because he was supposed to be helping me count and he said, "Oh, it all happened so fast". No, no. You promised you were helping me. I should have known not to trust him, but he has such a trustworthy face. Greg's right, he's a p****. There were some tasks where I threw things at him, purely because I knew Greg would really enjoy that and give me extra points.

:: Taskmaster returns to Channel 4 on Thursday September 29