Taskmaster crew featuring Rose Matafeo.
Think of it this way: can you imagine what it would have been like if there'd been a New Zealander on Whose Line Is It Anyway? You can't, because that would have been literally unimaginable but try to imagine anyway.
Now, look at the cast of the new series of
Taskmaster. Shed a single, patriotic tear and softly but tunefully hum the national anthem: that's Rose Matafeo, New Zealander, representing us on the world comedy stage alongside the likes of David Baddiel from 2018's biggest tune, Three Lions (Football's Coming Home) and Jo Brand off The Graham Norton Show.
In many ways Taskmaster is the spiritual heir to Whose Line, which Clive Anderson always used to introduce as, "The show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." The points have never really mattered that much in the show's previous eight series but they do now. That's because what Taskmaster is to Whose Line, Rose Matafeo is to Phar Lap and Steinlager 2: a classic Kiwi world-beater.
Our national desire to watch a Kiwi world-beater knows almost no bounds. We'll even pretend we understand yachting if there's a chance someone with a New Zealand flag on their shirt might lift a trophy at the end of it all. If Matafeo doesn't end up winning the golden bust of host Greg Davies' huge head, well then that's just further evidence of an international anti-New Zealand conspiracy, proof the BBC are in cahoots with the NRL Bunker.
The first round of the first episode, which aired on TVNZ Duke this week, involved the five contestants bringing in their "most stressful thing". It was won by Welsh comedian Katy Wix, who brought in a teapot with the handle directly adjacent to the spout – did I mention this show is British? Matafeo's unspooled cassette tape didn't stand a chance.
