GameFace

The best TV shows for Taskmaster fans

While we wait for Taskmaster's Series 15 release date, here are some similar TV treats to keep you entertained, including shows featuring previous cast members.

Euan Ferguson's best TV of 2019

Fleabag, of course, but also GameFace, Aisling Bea's This Way Up, Motherland - and that lovely, short sweet run, State Of The Union. Black Mirror as well, although too few episodes. There was sadcom too - don't forget Don't Forget The Driver, Defending The Guilty. And with Stath Lets Flats and Flack, we were laughing all the way until we suddenly stopped.

The sitcom renaissance has arrived

Shows like Channel 4's Stath Lets Flats show audiences can care about the half-hour format - it just needs specificity.

An utterly triumphant second series wraps up with a pair of episodes that see Marcella (Roisin Conaty) zig-zagging between joy, pain and talking to a horse. After a rough night, she swears off drinking and heads off for a few quiet days in the country with a perilously weak phone signal. But will she get a happy ending?

Last time, our frustrated singleton Marcella had to dress up as a monk. This week she is in a TV ad that pays so well she winds up almost too wrecked to attend her creative writing class. Cue a harrowing session with life coach Frances and an invitation to the party from hell. Roisin Conaty: comedy genius.

Roisin Conaty: interview

The actor, stand-up and creator of TV sitcom GameFace on the things that make her laugh the most.

Still reeling from being called "a potato-faced slapper" by Simon's ex-wife Tanya, a bruised Marcella seeks solace in her acting work; trouble is, barring a bit part as a monk, she can't find any. Writer-star Roisin Conaty's scripts get better by the week, with the internal rhythms of her comedy winning our hearts.

A handsome round of applause for the welcome return of GameFace, Roisin Conaty's filthy and intemperate Fleabag for the working class. It begins with excellence: "A flower does not compete with the flower next to it. It just blooms." Marcella (Conaty) is listening to an "inspirational" podcast or some such. "As you begin to express the vision you have of yourself... ", its flibbery nonsense continues, "today is the only day you will ever have. Be grateful, be brave and be excellent." It was all bizarrely reminiscent, for some reason, of Mr Johnson in recent interviews, the only difference being that the average teenager uses this kind of "positivity" filth to be nicer to animals and try to pass their next dauntingly easy exam: Boris is about to pretend it's the answer to running a country.

Anyway, the acting role Marcella's been psyching for is a plague victim in the London Dungeon; a good enough gag, but not as good as Conaty's later suggestion that "if you confess a lie within 24 hours, it can be written off as more of a... 'prank'". I believe that's called a life hack and intend to use it assiduously. Glisteningly written and fun throughout, if not to all tastes, but a splendid starter.