Recap / Taskmaster Series Three

Taskmaster recap index
British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen
Specials: Champion of Champions | New Year Treats and One-Offs
New Zealand series:
Seasons: One | Two | Three | Four
Australian series:
Seasons: One

Cast

From left: Rob Beckett, Al Murray, Sara Pascoe, Greg Davies, Alex Horne, Dave Gorman and Paul Chowdhry

• Taskmaster: Greg Davies
• Taskmaster's Assistant: Alex Horne
• Contestants: Al Murray, Dave Gorman, Paul Chowdhry, Rob Beckett, Sara Pascoe
• Teams:
  • Sara Pascoe and Rob Beckett ("The Siblings")
  • Al Murray, Dave Gorman and Paul Chowdhry ("The Beards")

This page contains unmarked spoilers for the series in question. If you haven't seen the series yet, you are recommended to leave the page now. You have been warned.

Episodes

Episode 1 - "A Pea in a Haystack"

• Prize Task: Most Flamboyant Clock
  • Winner: Sara - a Queen-themed clock (5 points)
  • Al - the clock on his kitchen stove (4 points)
  • Dave - the clock on his microwave (3 points)^note both Al and Dave went for the same joke: that they'd brought in a clock that could also cook for you
  • Rob - a sundial attached to a bronze tortoise statue (2 points)
  • Paul - a "Pop Clock" that can be worn on any item of clothing (1 point)

• Task 1: Get To The Microwave At The End Of A Running Track As Fast As Possible, With As Few Steps As Possible, In Five Minutes^note In order to provide some obstacles, the Taskmaster asked his Assistant to ensure that the track was littered with hurdles, blue mats, and goose poo
  • Winner: Rob - rolling on his side (5 points)
  • Al - crawling on his hands and knees (4 points)
  • Sara - cartwheels and crawling on her hands and knees (3 points)
  • Dave - long strides and somersaults (2 points)^note Dave initially took long strides after misunderstanding the wording of the task as "in steps, but as few as possible." After colliding with a fence barrier, however, he gave up and somersaulted the rest of the way to the microwave
  • Paul - tiny stepping on the hurdles ("Is that a step?") and then took long strides (Disqualified)^note failed to reach the microwave in five minutes before the timer went off

• Task 2: Propel A Pea The Furthest Distance. Your Pea Must Land And Remain On The Red Carpet
  • Winner: Al (5 points)^note "propelled" the pea by placing the pea on the carpet, rolling it up, getting into a hired cab, and heading west until the time was up. Upon returning to the Taskmaster house, he verified that the pea was still on the carpet.
  • Rob (4 points)^note "propelled" the pea by putting it in a wheelbarrow, pushing it around the garden until his time was almost up, then tipping the pea out onto the carpet
  • Sara (3 points)^note Sara chucked the pea three times and managed to land it on the carpet each time at considerable distances
  • Paul (2 points)^note although his pea did not land on the carpet and he ended up losing it in the grass, he received points for at least propelling the pea, while Dave was disqualified for attempting to cheat
  • Dave (Disqualified)^note cheated by trying to substitute a replacement pea after losing his original pea

• Task 3: Make The Best Snowman In One Hour (On A Day Without Snow)
  • Winner: Dave - Snow Mash^note used powdered potato mash to mold his snowman outdoors (5 points)
  • Sara - "Scoopy"^note used vanilla ice cream scoops to make her snowman, along with a hand-made scarf (4 points)
  • Al - Ice Tray Man^note Molded a tray and poured water in it, then added ice to speed up the freezing process. In an interview, the Taskmaster's Assistant claims that Al's snowman continued to live in the freezer drawer for another two years. (3 points)
  • Rob - Marshmallow Man ^note squeezed lots of marshmallows into the general shape of a snowman and added stick arms, stone eyes, nose and mouth, and knitwear (2 points)
  • Paul - "Snow Bear"^note used a stuffed toy rabbit, covered it in ice, and then poured blue slush puppy on it for colouring and to make "tears" as a reflection of Paul's feelings (1 point)

• Live Task: Balance As Many Swedes^note the vegetable On A Swede^note person from Sweden As Possible
  • Winner: Al (5 points)
  • Paul (4 points)
  • Dave (3 points)
  • Rob (2 points)
  • Sara (1 point)

• Episode Ranking:
  1. Winner: Al Murray (21 points)
  2. Sara Pascoe (16 points)
  3. Rob Beckett (15 points)
  4. Dave Gorman (13 points)
  5. Paul Chowdhry (8 points)

Episode 2 - "The Dong and the Gong"

• Prize Task: Heaviest Item That Can Fit In A Shoebox
  • Winner: Dave - a lump of marble paving from his garden (5 points)
  • Rob - a lump of concrete (4 points)
  • Al - a copy of Alan Bullock's biography Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (3 points)
  • Paul - a shoebox full of watermelon (2 points)
  • Sara - a "poisonous snake"^note Actually a stuffed toy and a 12.5kg weight. Pipped to last place because Sara refused to allow the shoebox to be weighed and because she claimed it was a few kilograms heavier than Dave's lump of marble. (1 point)

• Task 1: Surprise The Taskmaster's Assistant When He Emerges From The Shed In One Hour
  • Winner: Rob - sitting on a sofa dressed as a nan and yelling "Alex, you've been a bad boy!" before spraying him with a water-hose and laughing maniacally (5 points)
  • Al - striking a gong and activating air-horns with his feet while wearing only his underpants (4 points)
  • Dave - stripping the crew down to their underwear and directing the Assistant to a "blue button" before jumping out of the bushes (fully clothed) to startle him (3 points)
  • Sara - framing the Assistant for the brutal "murder" of one of the crew (2 points)
  • Paul - "Brown Clown"^note Paul dressed as a sinister clown with an axe in a large cardboard box (1 point)

• Task 2: Team Task - Free Alex. Fastest Wins^note The task is that the Taskmaster's Assistant is handcuffed in the corner of the room and the team find the key to the handcuffs. However, the usual task letter is written in UV ink and is apparently blank, meaning each team must use a series of clues within the house to first work out what the task is, and then to find out where the key is located. The key is located in the Assistant's hand.
  • Winner: Sara and Rob - 16 minutes 46 seconds (5 points)
  • Al, Dave and Paul - 27 minutes 37 seconds (0 points)

• Task 3: Create The Best Upside-Down Self-Portrait Using Only The Materials Supplied^note various condiments in squirty bottles
  • Winner: Al (5 points)
  • Sara (4 points)
  • Dave (3 points)
  • Paul and Rob (2 points)

• Task 4: Pop All The Balloons Arranged On The Lawn^note in Morse code which reads "POP JUST TWO AND WIN"; nobody realised this, and popped all the balloons. Fastest Wins. Time Starts When You Pop The First Balloon
  • Winner: Rob - 31.6 seconds (5 points)
  • Paul - 1 minute 26 seconds (4 points)
  • Dave - 1 minute 50 seconds (3 points)
  • Sara - 1 minute 58 seconds (2 points)
  • Al - 34.6 seconds (1 point)^note some balloons floated away before they could be popped

• Live Task: Unravel The Whole Roll Of Sticky-Tape, Put The Unravelled Roll In Your Lunchbox And Close The Lid (Fastest Wins)
  • Winner: Al - 55 seconds(5 points)
  • Paul - 1 minute 12 seconds (4 points)
  • Dave - 1 minute 14 seconds (3 points)
  • Sara - 1 minute 46 seconds (2 points)
  • Rob (Disqualified)^note the tape ended up stuck on his hand and so couldn't be placed in the box

• Episode Ranking:
  1. Winner: Rob Beckett (21 points)
  2. Al Murray (18 points)
  3. Dave Gorman (17 points)
  4. Sara Pascoe (16 points)
  5. Paul Chowdhry (13 points)

Episode 3 - "Little Polythene Grief Cave"

• Prize Task: Best Battery-Operated Item
  • Winner: Rob - a light for a toilet (5 points)
  • Paul - a light-up hairband with dreadlocks (4 points)
  • Sara - her iPod Touch (3 points)
  • Al - a WALL•E toy robot (2 points)
  • Dave - Ewan the Dream Sheep^note a white-noise player in the shape of a stuffed sheep to help babies get to sleep (1 point)

• Task 1: Fill This Egg Cup With Your Own Sweat. Most Sweat Wins
  • Winner: Paul (5 points)
  • Sara (4 points)^note bought some sweat off of the sound man for £2
  • Dave (3 points)
  • Rob (2 points)
  • Al (Disqualified)^note substituted urine for sweat. The Taskmaster and the Taskmaster's assistant consulted with television doctors the Van Tulleken brothers. They both agreed that urine and sweat were not the same because they are produced by different parts of the body and for cultural reasons, and while they are both mostly water, by that logic, a substance like beer could also be used to substitute for sweat.

• Trick Task: The Above, But You Must Complete The Whole Task Speaking In An Accent Different To Your Own
  • Victim: Rob - 12 different accents, including 3 new ones.

• Task 2: Make The Best Domino Rally
  • Winner: Paul (5 points)
  • Dave (4 points)
  • Rob (3 points)
  • Al and Sara (1 point)^note Points deducted because Al and Sara's domino rallies did not fall over completely in one knock.

• Task 3: Buy A Gift For The Taskmaster (£20 value)
  • Winner: Dave - a collection of mementos celebrating Wem, the Taskmaster's home town (5 points)
  • Rob - a matching footstool for the Taskmaster's throne (4 points)
  • Al - £20 worth of "The Last Rolo"^note context: Rolos are caramel/toffee filled chocolate popular in the UK, and were the subject of a famous advertising campaign revolving around the question "do you love someone enough to give them your last Rolo?" (3 points)
  • Paul - a copy of the party game Twister, with the (unwanted) implication that it was to be played with nude women (2 points)
  • Sara - £20 worth of writing for an episode of the Taskmaster's sitcom, Man Down^note a single page that showed she had knew nothing of the show (not even the name of the Taskmaster's character) and introduced a character for herself to play (1 point)

• Task 4: Create The Best "Flag Meal"^note a complete meal prepared in the colours and shape of a national (or well-recognised) flag
  • Winner: Dave - a Skull and Crossbones-themed salad and rice dish (5 points)
  • Paul - a terrible representation of the Mexican flag but accidentally accurate representation of the flag of Mali in peas, pasta, mustard and tomato sauce (4 points)
  • Sara - a strawberry, red licorice and icing platter in the shape of the Canadian flag (3 points)
  • Al - a tray of rice in the colours of the Union Jack (2 points)
  • Rob - a small pancake covered in red dye and ketchup to simulate the Japanese flag^note or at least the centre of it - it was pointed out that he hadn't actually made anything to represent the white space surrounding it, and had just delivered it on a sheet of paper (1 point)

• Live Task: Anchor These Balloons With Only Bread. Most Anchored Balloons Wins
  • Winner: Sara (5 points)
  • Rob (4 points)
  • Dave (3 points)
  • Paul (2 points)
  • Al (1 point)

• Episode Ranking:
  1. Winner: Paul Chowdhry (22 points)
  2. Dave Gorman (21 points)
  3. Rob Beckett (19 points)
  4. Sara Pascoe (17 points)
  5. Al Murray (9 points)

Episode 4 - "A Very Nuanced Character"

• Prize Task: Shiniest Thing
  • Winner: Paul - a set of "shiny balls''^note Chinese medicine balls (5 points)
  • Sara - a CD copy of the single "Shine" by Take That! (4 points)
  • Dave - a reflective cycling jacket with a light (3 points)
  • Rob - an almost-complete sticker album from the 2014 World Cup, complete with "shinies" (2 points)
  • Al - a broken torch (1 point)

• Task 1: Spread Four Items Of Clothing That You Are Currently Wearing As Far And Wide As Possible At Your Own Expense In Thirty Minutes^note the results were judged based on the area in square miles created by the clothes as vertices
  • Winner: Al - 6.2 square miles (5 points)^note Had the Taskmaster's Assistant and a member of the film crew go in one direction in a taxi, while he took a second taxi to his own car; after this task the Taskmaster's Assistant noted that up to this point Al had spent £340 in the process of completing tasks
  • Rob - 2.7 square miles (4 points)^note Had the Taskmaster's Assistant drive him around Richmond in his van; was the only competitor to remove his trousers
  • Dave - 0.3 square miles (3 points)^note Cut his shirt in half to create an extra 'node' with which to create his area; this was immediately torpedoed by the Taskmaster
  • Sara - 0.02 square miles (2 points)^note Attempted to claim a moral victory by having one of her socks drift out to sea in the Thames, failing to realize that the time limit precluded this
  • Paul - 0.0001 square miles (1 point)^note Did not leave the Taskmaster House compound and left his clothes around in the brambles, bushes, and over the fence

• Task 2: Find Out What This Retired Man Did For A Living^note The pensioner, Hugh, used to be an anaesthetist.. You Can Ask Any Question But Must Whisper At All Times. The Man Can Only Nod Or Shake His Head And Can Only Lie. Fastest Wins
  • Winner: Al (5 points)
  • Dave (4 points)
  • Sara (3 points)
  • Rob (2 points)
  • Paul (1 point)

• Task 3: Team Task - Make The Most Special Effect In One Hour
  • Winner: Al, Dave and Paul - A football game^note Dave and Paul are playing keepie uppie with a football and accidentally knock Al's head off, which they kick around as if it were the football. After flying up into the air past a plane, one final kick returns Al's head to his body. (3 points)
  • Rob and Sara - Chaussure^note The husband in a marriage messes with his wife by making shoes appear and disappear by winking. Eventually, he uses his powers to move them outdoors and fires his wife into a different dimension, replacing her with the man of his dreams. (2 points)

• Live Task: Wearing A Blindfold, Cover Yourself In Individual Sticky Notes. Most Sticky Notes Remaining After 100 Seconds Wins
  • Winner: Rob (5 points)
  • Dave (4 points)
  • Sara (3 points)
  • Al (2 points)
  • Paul (1 point)

• Trick Task: Have As Much Fun On This Bouncy Castle As Possible In One Hour
  • Victim: Paul

• Episode Ranking:
  1. Winner: Dave Gorman (17 points)
  2. Al Murray (16 points)
  3. Rob Beckett (15 points)
  4. Sara Pascoe (14 points)
  5. Paul Chowdhry (11 points)

Episode 5 - "The F.I.P."

• Prize Task: A Photo Of Their Most Handsome Relative
  • Winner: Dave - Cary Grant, to whom Dave is distantly related through marriage^note this was verified by the show; Grant's cousin married the niece of Gorman's great-grandmother (5 points)
  • Al - his grandfather, Sir Ralph Murray, a British diplomat (4 points)
  • Rob - James Earl Jones^note this time there's no actual relation, but according to Rob he was bullied for looking like Jones as a child and his mother used to tell him they were related to comfort/prank him (3 points)
  • Paul and Sara (1 point)
    • Paul - himself as a younger man
    • Sara - her mother's cat Pebbles

• Task 1: Move The Water From Bucket A To Bucket B. Most Water Moved In Ten Minutes Wins. You Must Not Move The Buckets
  • Winner: Al (5 points)^note bribed the Taskmaster's Assistant with £80 to move Bucket A to Bucket B and to lift Bucket A up so that the water could be siphoned out into Bucket B with the hose. When pressed on what he did with the £80, the Assistant reluctantly admitted that he bought a round at the pub and pretended that the money was his.
  • Rob (4 points)
  • Paul (3 points)
  • Sara (2 points +1 bonus point)^note the bonus point was awarded as Sara had asked the Taskmaster's Assistant to move the bucket only to be refused; the Assistant had later moved the bucket after being paid by Al to do so
  • Dave (Disqualified)^note poured some of the coffee he was drinking into the bucket
    
    As punishment for his unethical behaviour, the Taskmaster commanded his Assistant to donate the £80 to charity (£60 to the dolphins and £20 to Rob Beckett who is not financially well-off) and to remove one shoe and sock for the remainder of the episode.

• Task 2: Team Task - Cross-River Charades With Oversized Hands. Wearing One Of These Hands On Each Of Your Hands At All Times, Communicate To Your Teammates The Names Of These Films, Books, or TV Programmes. You May Not Raise Your Voice. Most Correct Answers Wins^note Each team was standing on opposite banks of the Thames at about 500 feet apart, with Rob and Dave miming for their teams. Answers included, among others, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mad Max, The Bible, Nineteen Eighty-Four, War and Peace, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", Batman, Winnie the Pooh, Taskmaster, Dave Gorman's Modern Life Is Goodish, "Cry Me a River," and Die Hard
  • Winner: Al, Dave and Paul - 19 out of 20 (5 points)^note After fumbling around with the oversized hands, Dave approaches noted television presenter Ben Fogle (who happened to be shooting footage on the foreshore) and convinces him to shout the names of the films, books, shows and songs to the other team members.
  • Rob and Sara - 7 out of 20 (0 points)

• Task 3: Do Something That Looks Brilliant When Sped Up Or Slowed Down
  • Winner: Sara and Rob (5 points)
    • Rob - smashing a bag of frozen peas, a watermelon, and a bag of flour with a cricket bat that have been thrown by a mysterious villain
    • Sara - "Robot Rock" — building a robot companion out of boxes and flexible ducts before doing a boogie with it
  • Dave and Paul (3 points)
    • Dave - blowing a balloon until it bursts into a glittery explosion, revealing that Dave is wearing sunglasses
    • Paul - keepy uppie with a football in slow-mo while running several laps around the house
  • Al - a slow-mo credit for "Murray Vision," featuring Al striking a gong so forcefully that his wig falls off (2 points)^note Docked points because he'd already used a gong in "The Dong and the Gong"

• Live Task: Donut Deal Or No Deal^note not really (Dave Gorman just makes a joke along those lines), but this one's complicated. The contestants are given a collection of donuts arranged on a stick, covered by a box. They must secretly place a certain amount of donuts on their stick. The lowest unique amount of donuts wins; that is, the contestant who both has the fewest amount of donuts and is the only contestant to have that amount wins. If there's no unique amount, the contest is replayed until there's a winner.
  • Winner: Rob (5 points)
  • Al, Dave, Paul and Sara (0 points)
    
    This if the first live studio task to feature a "winner takes all" scoring system, where the winner takes 5 points and the other contestants get 0 points.

• Episode Ranking:
  1. Winner: Rob Beckett (17 points)
  2. Al Murray (16 points)
  3. Dave Gorman (13 points)
  4. Paul Chowdhry (12 points)
  5. Sara Pascoe (9 points)

Episode Tally

• Rob Beckett = 2 episodes (Episodes 2 and 5)
• Al Murray, Paul Chowdhry and Dave Gorman = 1 episode
  • Al (Episode 1)
  • Paul (Episode 3)
  • Dave (Episode 4)
• Sara Pascoe = 0 episodes

This series marks the first time the series champion has also won the most episodes^note Josh Widdicombe, the champion of Series 1, tied with Frank Skinner for most episodes with two each, and the first time the series champion has also won the series finale. It also marks the second time that no episodes in a series have required a tiebreaker to decide the victor.

Task Tally

A breakdown of the tasks as won by the contestants is as follows:

• Al Murray: 10 tasks (5 video tasks, 3 video team tasks, 2 live tasks)
• Dave Gorman and Rob Beckett: 8 tasks
  • Dave: 2 prize tasks, 3 video tasks, 3 video team tasks
  • Rob: 1 prize task, 3 video tasks, 1 video team task, 1 joint victory (with Sara), 1 live task, 1 tiebreaker
• Paul Chowdhry: 6 tasks (1 prize task, 2 video tasks, 3 video team tasks)
• Sara Pascoe: 4 tasks (1 prize task, 1 video team task, 1 joint victory [with Rob], 1 live task

This is the second occasion in which a champion has not also won the most tasks, though unlike the previous example Rob Beckett came joint second. This is also the first series in which two teammates have managed to earn a joint victory in an individual task.

Episode Titles

Each episode is a Title Drop made by either a participant in the show, the Taskmaster, or the Taskmaster's Assistant. In this series, the titles were provided by:

• Episode 1: Paul Chowdhry (after losing the pea he was trying to throw onto a red carpet in the grass: "It's like trying to find a pea in a haystack!")
• Episode 2: The Taskmaster's Assistant (on Al Murray's clothesless attempt at surprising him, complete with a gong: "Look at that... the dong and the gong.")
• Episode 3: The Taskmaster (describing the device Dave Gorman tried to build to generate sweat for the "produce the most drops of sweat" task: "Were you sweating in your little polythene grief-cave?")
• Episode 4: The Taskmaster (describing the character Rob Beckett devised for his and Sara Pascoe's attempt at the "most special effect" team task: "I thought he was a very nuanced character, though... the insane winking gay magician.")
• Episode 5: The Taskmaster's Assistant (though technically he was just providing an acronym for the Taskmaster's description of Rob Beckett, finding himself unexpectedly prone to flatulence while participating in a task on a very cold day, as "the farty ice-pop".)

This series is the first in which a contestant has only provided one episode title, and the first in which the Taskmaster's Assistant has provided an episode title.

Series Ranking

1. Winner: Rob Beckett (87 points)
2. Dave Gorman (81 points)
3. Al Murray (80 points)
4. Sara Pascoe (72 points)
5. Paul Chowdhry (66 points)