Back at the end of 2024, our Young Producer team received an email hinting that, if we hadn’t before, it might be a good idea for us to watch some episodes of Taskmaster. A few weeks into the new year and we were introduced to one of the most exciting projects from my time as a Young Producer, the announcement that English Heritage were going to team up with Taskmaster over the summer of 2025. The partnership would allow visitors to English Heritage sites to participate in Taskmaster tasks, battling with their families and friends to become Taskmaster champions. With amazing people across English Heritage working to deliver all the practicalities needed (shout out to Rosie, who ended up with a car full of ducks to transport) and the lovely people at Taskmaster Education, Ali and James, bringing their expertise to guide us along the way, it was us, the Young Producers, who were tasked with definitely the best part of the deal, coming up with the tasks that visitors would be tackling.
As tricky as Taskmaster challenges look to complete when we see the comedians attempt to do it on the tv, it turns out writing them can prove trickier. Many hours of zoom calls ensued with the group from all over the country, trying to figure out just how much information should be provided to baffle and bemuse, but still ultimately be achievable, and most importantly, fun. With 17 sites to consider and each site needing 6 tasks it was a good job we had so many people on board this project. From tasks that were inspired by the history of the sites that would be their backdrop, to the most chaotic excuses to hurl rubber ducks around (because when else do you get to do that?!) we could lean into our creativity and approach this project from our own angles. It also meant there were plenty of people on hand to help us figure out could just how far we could push it, and is it possible to ask people to torture their friends and family with feathers (the answer was yes!).
Finally, the collaboration was no longer a secret and we could tell everybody about it! And better still, we got to take part. On 26th July, some of the Young Producers and members of the Shout Out Loud team took a trip to Kenilworth Castle to explore the site and try out the tasks. You might think that having been behind the scenes of the whole process would give us an advantage when it came to doing the tasks ourselves… turns out I definitely shouldn’t have announced that so confidently before we attempted them. Coming up with a proposal elaborate enough it could have done what Robert Dudley’s failed to, and impressed Elizabeth I, was a lot easier to write down on paper than to try and reenact among the ruins of the Castle filled with visitors. Of course, your success does in part come down to the generosity of who you appoint to be the taskmaster’s assistant who will dole out the points, so think carefully about who in your group can be allowed to wield such power, as that could be your downfall or your secret weapon. But, just like the whole process of this project, thinking outside of the box and letting silliness rule is the most surefire way to succeed, whatever your point total ends up as. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
