What Alex Horne Watches (and Listens to) With His Sons

When Alex Horne created the U.K. game show Taskmaster in 2009, he never imagined the show would become something whole families could enjoy together.

“I think it started in COVID lockdown,” he says. “People were suddenly together all the time, and they wanted a program that could appeal to parents, grandparents, teenagers, and children alike. It was a bit of a surprise, but I think we’ve learned that the bad language on our show is at least kind of earned sometimes, or at least playful rather than offensive. We hope.” 

First performed as an Edinburgh Fringe one-off, where contestants included a bunch of Horne’s comedian friends, Taskmaster has grown into a genuine phenomenon. When Horne and co-host Greg Davies toured the U.S. earlier this year, playing the game onstage with contestants like Seth Meyers and John Oliver, they were met by sold-out theaters filled with rabid fans, many of whom have become familiar with the show through the full episodes posted on YouTube.

With the finale of the 21st season of Taskmaster having just aired — won by Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page, though she faced tough competition from Armando Iannucci and Kumail Nanjiani, among other contestants — the show has also just announced the roster of famous folks playing its 22nd season, set to air later this year.

It’s certainly keeping Horne busy, though he tries to make time for his family when possible. As we spoke for this piece, he was being driven home to meet his three sons — ages 13, 15, and 17 — so they could watch the World Cup opening ceremonies together. 

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The World Cup

It’s a slightly odd World Cup for two reasons. Well, maybe a few reasons, but FIFA is one of them. Maybe your president is one of them. But there’s a lot of teams this year — it’s the biggest ever one, so there’s a lot of matches — and I am really excited about it, because my kids really are too. 

I think of my childhood in World Cups. I can remember the four World Cups when I was growing up, and so for them, this is like the biggest one ever because it’s the next one, so I’m excited for them. We’ll watch the opening ceremony in an hour or two together; we’re watching the England match at my local club. I’m involved in a local football club, and they are as well, so we’re all watching together. 

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Hamilton

I think we’re a very normal family. I’m one of three boys, and I’ve got three boys. With my parents, we played games, we played sports, and it’s pretty much the same with my kids. 

In the car, we listen to Hamilton, the musical. It’s not as much anymore because now they’ve all got AirPods in and they’re listening to their own things, but there was a good year of just Hamilton, and it felt quite wholesome.

For my 40th birthday, my gift from my wife was to go watch Hamilton, and everyone said we needed to listen to it first. So we listened to it and really liked it, and the kids said, “What’s that?” So they listened to it and then we took them to it this Christmas, seven years later, and I have not tired of it. I imagine it’s not cool anymore, since it’s been around for a while, but it just ticks those boxes of “Parents like it, because it’s vaguely educational,” and “We think the music’s cool, even though the kids think it’s not cool, but I think secretly it is.” Plus it’s a good sing-along.

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Absolutely no Taskmaster

I should say, my kids do not watch Taskmaster. I think they would really like it, but they can’t bear watching their dad. There are some situations even I don’t like seeing myself in, and they don’t want to see that either.

They do love the world of the show, though. They come to test the tasks sometimes. They come to the house. They know everybody. But they don’t watch the show. I’d like to think that someday they’ll find it and watch it, but I think it’s sort of the same thing as keeping old ticket stubs and things, like, “Maybe one day, someone will look at all these things.” I just don’t think they will. 

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The Traitors

We watch The Traitors, which is a bit frustrating because it’s a rival show. I can’t help liking it, though, because it’s brought our family together. It’s brilliant.

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Rated “15” movies

We’re very good at watching movies as a family. I think the latest one we watched was Project Hail Mary. It’s nice when the kids are older because you can watch 15s. We watched Anaconda together, which I thought was pretty bad, but I enjoyed it. We’ll watch all the Marvel things.

On a wet or cold day, watching a movie is when you feel like the family is together, and it’s pretty good. I don’t know about you over there. I imagine you’re the same as us, slightly worried about the attention span of children, but my boys can absolutely still watch a movie. We’ll get to the end and be like, “We did it!” 

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Steven Spielberg movies

We’ve had some success showing them older movies and some not-success. My favorite movie growing up was Blues Brothers, which I watched a million times. I showed it to the kids, and they didn’t like it, but they loved E.T. They loved all the Jurassic Park films. They love Indiana Jones. They don’t love Star Wars, but I don’t love Star Wars for some reason either.

We tried Brewster’s Millions. That didn’t work. It’s slower than we remembered. They like fast things, as that generation does. Sometimes they’ll think a movie looks old and they’re not interested, but sometimes that doesn’t matter, like pretty much all the Tom Hanks films they love.

I imagine we’ll like Disclosure Day. I love that Spielberg is making movies for them to see as kids, just like he did for me.

I’m slightly anti–going to the cinema in the summer; like, I just want to be outside, but our summer in the U.K. can be pretty grim occasionally, so we’ll save it for one of those days. 

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Max Fosh and Dude Perfect

I’m watching more and more YouTube with them, partly because I know it’s coming, working in TV. YouTube’s coming to get us, but there’s good stuff there. 

There’s a guy called Max Fosh over here who’s great. People in my generation often think there’s nothing good on YouTube, but there’s plenty good on there. You’ve just got to find it.

There’s also Dude Perfect, which is a good American wholesome YouTube channel, and the quality is amazing. It’s brilliant.

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Card Games

We’re really good at playing games when we are on holiday. We kind of move around with newish games or what we’re playing at the moment, but there’s a game called Skull that I really recommend. It’s a tiny little card game.

There’s a game called Corks, which is based on a card game called Spoons, which is brilliant. There’s a violent card game called Shithead, which has a swear word, so the kids love it. We even play basic ones like Consequences or charades. Old-school parlor games still work.

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The Hunger Games

My sons have tried to get us into Minecraft and things like that, but I can’t do it. I just can’t. They’re massively into The Hunger Games, though, and actually my wife has really gotten into that through them.

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Julia Donaldson books

Julia Donaldson’s books are brilliant. They are just so remarkable. The kids could still probably recite the whole of The Gruffalo. I think there should be huge credit to her, because they’re just so wholesome and there’s morals. It’s good writing, too, and that’s a special bit because I’ve written a kids’ book, and my kids did not like it.

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The Phoenix

My kids love The Phoenix, and I think comics are brilliant for kids. With The Phoenix, which comes weekly, I think it’s that it’s coming through the mailbox and then it’s who gets to open it. It’s just a constant in their life, I suppose. It tends to just be on the kitchen table, so someone will be reading it at a mealtime. That’s probably something you would frown upon in the old days, but now you just think, Brilliant! Reading! Amazing.