The fourth series of Taskmaster is on Dave on Tuesdays.

Below are interviews with hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne and the contestants this time round - Noel Fielding, Lolly Adefope, Mel Giedroyc, Hugh Dennis & Joe Lycett.

Greg Davies:

What can we expect from this series?

We can expect a whole new raft of exciting guests. There are some brilliant people this series. Noel Fielding and Mel Giedroyc, Hugh Dennis who apparently is knocking it out of the park. And Lolly and Joe too.

What makes a dream contestant?

I am part of the discussion process of who would be our dream people and I think it’s someone who recognises that we’re not out to humiliate anyone but throws themselves in to the tasks and humiliates themselves! There’s no malice to this programme and it’s a very much ‘we’re all in this together’ thing. I play this preposterous authoritarian figure but in fact I’d be horrified if anyone came on it who didn’t just have fun.

So, they need to have no shame...

No and I think that’s the thing, it’s consensual humiliation. They know they’re going to look silly and that their brain is going to throw up unusual ways of tackling certain tasks, but just be celebratory about that and throw themselves in to it. And I have to say that I can’t think of a contestant so far in all three series that hasn’t done that, who hasn’t thrown caution to the wind and gone yeah.

Why do you think the concept works so well?

I think it’s the sort of combination of the bizarrely imaginative tasks and the simplicity of it working hand in hand. It’s very much Alex’s baby - he developed it in Edinburgh - and the tasks are fiendishly complicated but fiendishly simple all at once; they’re leftfield enough to throw peoples’ brains out of kilter. The actual concept is like a parlour game and who doesn’t enjoy the fun of involving themselves in a bonkers activity?

Why do you and Alex work so well as a team?

Alex and I didn’t know each other especially well when we started but we do get on very well now. Alex is a very thoughtful, self-effacing, humble man and I’m a big booming show-off - the perfect combination! We’re very different performers and just complement each other. I think he needs a mouthpiece so he likes to play the role of being confidante of the contestants and I come in and make the harsh judgments. And the idea that I’m in any way a figure of authority delights me. I was a teacher for years and never considered a figure of authority, so for someone to give me a degree of power no one can take off me is intoxicating.