Taskmaster's Kiell Smith-Bynoe: "This show brings out the worst in me!"

"I was about to turn up outside the [production company] Avalon offices if I hadn't been asked! No, it's something that I've really wanted to do for a long time — my aim isn't to be myself on TV, I don't really want to be a personality and I don't see myself as a comedian, but if there was anything that I was going to do within that realm, it would be Taskmaster. The entertainment side was obviously a big part of it, and it's something that I'm really interested in — but I was much more interested in the competitive side!"

"Oh yeah, big time. Yeah, the show definitely brings out the worst in me, there was no doubt about that! People will be saying, 'I had no idea you were such a monster!'"

"Charlotte's advice was 'you'll be fine' — because I guess I was sort of worried about revealing too much of myself, being the actual me, which I'm not sure anyone needs on television! We're actors, not comedians, so it's not our go-to thing to be able to come up with a witty remark — which isn't a task, but it is part of the studio element of it, being entertaining — so I guess we had similar worries in that respect. But I saw how great she was on it — and to be honest, her series is the only full series I've watched. That's not out of disinterest, that's out of jealousy — I'd start watching and be like, 'I'm just thinking about what I would do' rather than watching it for what it is, until I watched Charlotte's series in support of her."

"I probably should have prepped for it, yeah! [chuckles] I can't say I did — I didn't want to come up with anything beforehand, I just wanted to do it all in the moment, otherwise I think I would have maybe created a character or something rather than just being myself. I'd done Catchphrase in 2021, and a lot of people told me I was too competitive to be entertaining! And they were completely right, when I watched it back my face was so serious, it was like I was on Newsnight or something. So I was trying to find a happy medium, and still get jobs afterwards!"

"I think there's a thing about me that goes, 'yeah, I could do that. How hard can it be?' — and when you watch the series, you'll realise that I do that before I've even thought of what the process should be! Some other people approach the task quite differently, like 'what's the trick here?' — I was not thinking that!"

"On the tasks he was fine. In the studio? That boy needs a strong talking-to! What is he playing at? I thought he was on my side, I thought we were mates. And then I realised, not at all. Constantly reminding Greg of what the task actually was! [laughs] A couple of episodes in, I started to feel like this was a personal attack, that Alex was just out to get me..."

"That's a great question — yes, there's one particular music task where I watched it and I was like, 'I'm so good at this' — and then they checked me, basically. I'd been tricked, I'd been done. That was Alex again! And there is one particular debate which I think will really get the viewers going. I still stand by the fact that I think it's ridiculous that it was allowed, but we'll get to that — and I will be kicking off on Twitter!"

"I am, yeah — I don't know if I'll be able to watch it, though. The reason that I watched the whole series of Charlotte's was, obviously she was in it, but we were filming Ghosts at the time, it was in lockdown and we were in the same hotel, so that was our Thursday night thing. I'd go and watch Taskmaster with her, she couldn't watch it by herself because of the same sort of thing as me, being worried about showing our true selves."

"Yes! She came to one of the records, so she's had a glimpse!"