These sold out in 11 minutes flat, Davies announces with a mix of pride and incredulity as we sit in a West End caf\u00e9. He and Alex Horne, Taskmaster\u2019s creator and co-host, have become cult figures. Their appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in January became the show\u2019s second most streamed interview online, behind Barack Obama. <\/p>\n
And these days he realises he couldn\u2019t have pulled any of this off without having wasted his time teaching, at Sandhurst comprehensive school, Langleywood in Slough and Orleans Park School in Twickenham. \u201cI branded myself a coward for so long for that.\u201d It was what his first sitcom, Man Down on Channel 4, was all about. \u201cBut I\u2019ve come to think, \u2018Oh, thank God I did teaching.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t ready. I didn\u2019t have a thick enough skin. It\u2019s such an advantage having lived a life before you come into this illusionary world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Davies with his Taskmaster co-host and the show\u2019s creator Alex Horne<\/p>\n
ROB PARFITT\/CHANNEL 4<\/p>\n
There is something uniquely teacherish about the commanding but inclusive way he toys with his fellow comedians on Taskmaster<\/a>. \u201cMy friends will tell you, the idea that I\u2019m an authority figure is just hilarious and is born of the pantomime authority you have to develop to survive as a teacher. And it\u2019s only in the last five years that my thoughts about teaching are filtered with affection.\u201d<\/p>\n He has become easier with wielding power over the years. Look back on the first season, with guests including Frank Skinner<\/a> and Ranganathan, and Davies\u2019s meanness is less flexibly play-acted than it is now. He says that\u2019s nothing compared with the unbroadcast pilot. \u201cI was just obnoxious. I had a big cane with a \u2018T\u2019 on it \u2014 we\u2019d decided I had to be this ruthless authoritarian. But actually he \u2014 if I may be pretentious \u2014 has got a lot softer over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now the hierarchy is so established. Funnily enough, it\u2019s the dream in teaching to get to the stage where you don\u2019t need to raise your voice. And that\u2019s where we are at with Taskmaster.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Greg Davies: \u2018I\u2019m a freak of nature with size 14 feet\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Will there be live shows in Britain after the American ones? He\u2019s not sure, although he enjoyed the \u201cramshackle\u201d version they did at Glastonbury this year<\/a>. The American shows, which include a Q&A session and tasks for two competing comedians, follows a sold-out appearance at the 1,500-seat Town Hall in New York in January. Walking around the city, they were stopped by fans every few minutes. \u201cThat blew our minds, really. It\u2019s just caught on over there.\u201d Now Davies is hoping to add American dates to his stand-up tour too, as well as shows in Australia and Europe. <\/p>\n When not pantomiming authority on stage or screen, Davies, who was born in Wales but grew up in Shropshire, cuts an approachable figure. He tells me he \u201clost three stone on the old Ozempic, in about four months, before putting most of it back on\u201d. His doctor tells him it\u2019s only because he is 6ft 8in that he doesn\u2019t look obese. He\u2019s flirting with doing some fasting. Beyond that he chooses not to worry about ageing. \u201cI think that\u2019s probably good in my game, isn\u2019t it?\u201d <\/p>\n Davies and Horne with Sam Campbell, John Robins, Andy Zaltzman, Mathew Baynton and Maisie Adam on Taskmaster<\/p>\n I first interviewed him 13 years ago, in the south London flat he was sharing with his girlfriend at the time, Liz Kendall, the Labour MP<\/a>. He remembers with a chortle how he refused to discuss his private life with me. They split in 2015. Is he in a relationship now? \u201cNot telling you.\u201d He\u2019s nothing if not consistent. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good rule of thumb not to talk about your current personal life,\u201d he says, with the affable firmness of a true taskmaster.<\/p>\n However, he does finally talk about Kendall \u2014 these days secretary of state for science, innovation and technology \u2014 in his live show. She crops up in an enjoyably undignified story about how Davies rang her, years after a bad split, after dropping his phone down his pants. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd it was such an awkward conversation, because we hadn\u2019t spoken for so long, and it just made me laugh as a story.\u201d He rang Kendall again to ask if she was happy for him to tell it on stage. \u201cShe thought it was hilarious. So not for any meaningful reason did I speak about her for the first time: we\u2019ve moved on now, she is no longer part of my life and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n As the title character in Channel 4\u2019s Finding Father Christmas, which is showing on Christmas Eve<\/p>\n TOM MARTIN\/CHANNEL 4<\/p>\n He still lives in that flat, although he also has a holiday home \u2014 he\u2019d rather not say where \u2014 where he will spend Christmas with his younger sister and other family members. Davies plays the title character in Channel 4\u2019s Christmas Eve comedy film, Finding Father Christmas. \u201cThe reality of how well my face now fits into the well-known ancient folklore character sort of depressed me a bit. But it was fun to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n Apart from some judicious guarding of his privacy, fame is mostly a pleasure. \u201cThere are sensible life choices to be made about not doing something silly, like going to a high street pub on a Saturday night. But largely people who approach me are apologetic and polite and very British about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming soon: he will revive his BBC sitcom, The Cleaner. And he may well return to the role that gave him his first TV success: the contemptuous teacher Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners<\/a>. <\/p>\n As Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners, with Simon Bird as Will McKenzie<\/p>\n CHANNEL 4<\/p>\n So the show is really coming back? \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s unfair to say the rumours aren\u2019t not true,\u201d he says, in an answer that\u2019s like a true Taskmaster challenge until he detangles the double negatives by saying, yes, plans are afoot. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll put this on the record, there are going to be some reprisals if I\u2019m not in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile he will carry on using his live shows, including his first night at the O2 in London next December, to offer a rambunctious celebration of his most embarrassing moments. \u201cIn my shows there is an element of crowing about my failures in the way that a dictator might crow about his policies. But I think there is a nice irony in that, isn\u2019t there, in somebody confidently telling you that they\u2019re shit.\u201d<\/p>\n Ambitions? Yes, he\u2019d still love it if Hollywood came calling, but he is no longer losing any sleep over it. \u201cI don\u2019t want to dominate the world any more. I don\u2019t need to be a movie star. But if I can fly to another country and there will be people there who want to hear me tell stories, well, how wonderful is that?\u201d<\/p>\n Taskmaster: Champion of Champions is on Channel 4, Dec 22 at 9pm. Taskmaster\u2019s New Year Treat is on Channel 4, Jan 2 and 3 at 9pm. Finding Father Christmas is on Channel 4, Christmas Eve at 7.30pm. Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend tours to Mar 12, 2027, gregdavies.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n What shows will you be watching over the Christmas period? Let us know in the comments below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time, until remarkably recently, that Greg Davies bitterly regretted ever becoming a teacher. He saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-202615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/\/2a491ff7-6a60-496f-91ca-fff1e703c882.jpg\")
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