Alex Horne's TV diary

Alex Horne, creator of comedy hit Taskmaster, receives an unusual delivery and consults his children for advice.

UKTV originals among top rated shows on network in 2018

Highest rated shows included Taskmaster on Dave, Death on the Tyne on Gold and Murder on the Blackpool Express on Drama.

It's cliched but true: we are truly in a golden age of television. It's easy to be drawn to the glitz and glamour of high-end drama, but hidden between Top Gear re-runs on banter channel Dave, Taskmaster has steadily been building a reputation as the funniest show on television. Birthed from an Edinburgh Fringe concept, Taskmaster Greg Davies and sidekick Alex Horne (also show creator) set a group of comedians a series of inane challenges. It's a winningly simple formula - get funny people to do silly things in a pressured environment, from finding the boiled egg in a line-up to just making "the best noise". The show's genius lies in its casting, avoiding the rotating line-up typical of panel shows, and instead securing the same people for 10 episodes. In-jokes develop and tensions rise as you follow contestants desperately attempting to win a golden replica of Davies's cranium. It might not be the most fashionable choice, but there's been nothing more reliably funny on television in 2018.

Review 2018: Top TV 2018

I don't know what it says about the times we are living in but comedy seems to have slipped into all sorts of programmes this year. I've kept my choices to more traditional comedies.

Up to the Task: Selling comedy to the world

Gameshow Taskmaster has been a standout hit for UKTV and is now entertaining audiences around the world. Creator Alex Horne and execs from UKTV and production company Avalon explain how the show was exported to 17 countries.