Dave show gets an Iberian makeover

Taskmaster is to get a Spanish makover.

Programme-makers Avalon have licensed Alex Horne’s hit format to local production company Secuoya Contenidos, which is to make an eight-part series.

Production is already under way on the programme, which will be called Dicho y Hecho – or ‘Said and Done’

The new show is due to air on public-service broadcaster TVE’s La 1 channel later this year, with actress and comedian Anabel Alonso taking Greg Davies’s role as the all-powerful Taskmaster.

Alonso is best known for playing Diana Freire in the popular Spanish sitcom 7 Vidas, loosely based on Friends. Her character was a naive second-rate actress who cames to realise she was a  lesbian, making her a gay icon. She also voiced Dory in the Spanish-language version of Finding Nemo.

Announcing the deal, Isobel Hughes, director of distribution at Avalon, said: ‘Taskmaster continues to find new audiences around the world. The format lends itself perfectly to international adaptation with its mix of comedy, competition and plethora of creative challenges. We are delighted Spain is the latest country to make its own version of the show.’

Here is a trailer:

Taskmaster has previously been remade locally for Comedy Central in the US (with Horne reprising his role as sidekick to the Taskmaster, played by Reggie Watts), TV 2 in Denmark, VTM in Belgium and for two series on Sweden’s SVT channel.

The format is also in development in five additional territories while the finished programme has been sold to New Zealand’s TVNZ and UKTV in Australia.

The news comes on the day Dave announced it was making a two-hour special of Horne's jazz and comedy show, The Horne Section.

Published: 5 Mar 2018