Ania Magliano on Taskmaster: 'It puts you back into this childlike mindset'

Series 20 of Taskmaster was another high point in a show full of high points, with a charming cast of contestants spread across the doesn’t-give-a-shit to highly-motivated spectrum  – crucial to any great series of the show. Some (Sanjeev Bhaskar) very openly didn’t care how they performed, while others tried very hard to win it all, resulting in the closest final standings yet. You can watch all of series 20 on the Taskmaster YouTube channel.

Some of the series’ excellent contestants are sharing their reflections and takeaways from the experience here at PV Guide, starting with Ania Magliano. The youngest ever contestant on a main Taskmaster series, Ania is an award-winning comedian who has written for a variety of shows, including Chicken Shop Date. She immediately won over Taskmaster audiences with her dedication to giving the show her all, her general everpresent charm, and the drawings she sketched after completing each task, which you can see on her Instagram.

Ania and I talked about her experience on the show, her competitive nature, recording memories on set, the other contestants, and why she wants to be a Real Housewife some day.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I read that you were a big fan of the show before being asked to be a contestant. Where did that start for you, and what was the experience like getting that call?

I knew about it just from [being in] comedy, but I didn’t first actually properly watch it until lockdown. I haven’t actually watched all the seasons consecutively, I’ve dipped around. I watched the one with Ed Gamble and Rose [Matafeo] first (Series 9). I loved it, but it was hard, because I was like I want to do this so badly. Then I would kind of watch seasons on and off. I watched the Sam Campbell season (Series 16) when I was on tour, and it was great. Especially when I was alone a lot, it really propped up my mental health. There were those periods, like lockdown, when I could watch a full season and just really enjoy it, but there were other times where I’d be like Oh my God, I want to do this so bad I can barely take it.

I kind of had hoped it was something that I would get to do, but I did not think it would happen for a long time. I kind of thought my path to do it was I’ll have to win the Edinburgh Comedy Award. I’m not saying that’s how they get people, but sometimes you can spot a pattern, right? There was a year, maybe two, three years ago now, when I got nominated and I didn’t win, and i was like Fuck, I’m gonna have to win that. I have to keep making these shows until I win, and then maybe I’ll get asked.

But I didn’t have to win, I just got the call. It was right before Edinburgh in 2024. I was so shocked. I knew something big must be coming, because I was so stressed about Edinburgh that I’d gone for a walk on Hampstead Heath for the whole day without my phone, came back, had loads of missed calls from my agent. I was like What can this mean? Surely it can’t be Taskmaster, but maybe it’ll be something big, or maybe I’m getting dropped, or I’m getting canceled, or something awful is about to happen. But my agent just told me, and I was literally like paralyzed, and then me and my boyfriend went out and had a nice dinner. We were both just kind of sat there in silence, like, What is happening? It was really surreal to have it happen so quickly.

So you get on the show, and for your series a lot was made out of the fact that each contestant represented a different decade. Did you feel any pressure to represent Gen Z?

Yes, but I don't think I'm an average representative of Gen Z. It's funny. Sometimes I feel funny being referred to as Gen Z, because I think when people stereotype Gen Z, they're not thinking of me. They're thinking of someone who's much more normal. I think I'm quite weird in my own special way. Maybe I'm not. Maybe all of Gen Z has this complex about thinking you're unique. But I don’t say “slay,” you know, I don’t do all that stuff. Sometimes I'm like, God, am I going to let people down by not being a proper Gen Z? 

But I think what I got my teeth into was less about being Gen Z and more about just being younger than Greg and Alex and being youthful. And that did not go down well. Greg doesn't like young people anyway, and there are a few times that didn't even make the edit on top of what was already in there where I sort of made jokes about them being old. I honestly think that was what led to my downfall. Like, if I had just made one less joke, maybe the points would have evened out, and it wouldn't have been second or third or whatever place I came in at the end.

Are you a competitive person in your life? Where does that show up for you?

I am. If I'm playing a board game with my boyfriend and he wins, I will throw all the pieces. No, I won't. I won't do that sincerely, but I will sort of as a joke do it, but maybe there's some truth to it. I'm not always competitive. I think I can be and but I can also have the attitude of It doesn't really matter. I play football every Saturday, usually, and it's a very friendly game, and I never keep score. That sort of thing doesn't matter to me. But if you catch me on a day when it does, it can take hold. I either really, extremely don't care, don't give a shit, or I care a lot. I don't really have any middle ground. That's kind of like my whole personality. I don't really ever exist in the gray area, it's always black or white.

Where did Taskmaster fall into that for you?

I wanted to win. The competitiveness was there. Initially it was stronger because I've never watched Champion of Champions, and I thought it was a whole season. So I was like, I really could do with the work. I don't have anything lined up after this. The rest of them, they've all got their TV shows, I really need to be on a second season of this. And I was having so much fun that I was like, I'd love to do 10 more episodes like that. Would be the dream. And it doesn't really matter if I'm not as funny in this one, because then I'll be really funny on Champion of Champions. And then after the first two episodes in the studio, I found out that it wasn't a whole other season. And I was like, What the fuck. 

Then I kind of relaxed a bit, and I definitely got less competitive in the sense that I felt like I argued less with Greg about some of the criticisms or some of the subjective tasks. I wasn't as bothered about fighting my corner as [I was] in the earlier ones. Even if I wasn't always outwardly arguing, in my head, I was like, That's fucking bullshit. 

There was a dip in the middle where I was like, Let's just see what happens. And then in the last two episodes, everyone cares all of a sudden. Maybe not Sanjeev, and I’m not sure about Reece, I think he was quite relaxed deep down. I remember, in the break before filming one of the studio tasks, we were all standing outside, and I remember Phil going “Oh, I kind of want to win now.” And I was like, Fuck, if Phil, me and Maisie all want to win, this is just going to be really tense.

And that’s how you get to a three-way tie.

Exactly. I feel like that’s why it happened, because suddenly, in the last two episodes, everyone started caring.

Something I loved from your time on the show is the drawings you did after each of the tasks. Is that something you do generally? Do you journal? Where did that instinct come from for you?

I journal. I do Morning Pages in the morning, but I don’t really draw. It’s not a thing I’ve done, not since I was a kid. I think it speaks to the power of Taskmaster, but it puts you back into this childlike mindset. I’ve got this pad that I do a lot of writing on. And when I went to the house, I remember I had a conversation with Ivo Graham before, and he said something he recommended doing was not stressing yourself out by going on your phone in between tasks. I think that was something he had done, and he said he wished he’d recorded his opinion on the task as he’d done it.

When I got there, I actually felt a little bit self conscious and didn’t want to record myself, and also because Chrissy, the makeup artist, is in the room as well. I was like, That would be cringe. So I thought maybe I’ll just do a drawing or something, so that I can remember the tasks. I was doing it, and then Chrissy saw my drawings and she was like Oh my god, we have to show Alex, he’ll love them. And then everyone started to see them. It became a bit of a thing, so I was like Okay, I’m going to put a bit more effort into these. That’s why you can see, if you look at them all in order, the ones at the end are so much more detailed and so much more complicated. 

Taskmaster gives you a lot of permission to be creative, and that does end up spilling out into the rest of your life. Similarly, the prize tasks are done after all the tasks are filmed, and I wanted to make as many of the prizes myself as possible. It lit a bit of a fire in me. It reminded me that I really enjoy stuff like that.

There was the one prize task, in episode seven, where you modified a mobility scooter to have a toilet instead of a seat.

So that, I had to get a proper person to help me with. I don’t know how to wire a thing, but we came up with the design together, and then there was a bit of a question mark. We were like, Wait, it’s a mobility scooter, is that really offensive? But we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t, because it wasn’t meant to be about the fact that it was a mobility scooter. This is a toilet on wheels, and it actually does work, it would just be very stinky very quickly. But the fact that you can drive it, I was like this has got to be the cherry on the cake.”

I’d love to go through something I do with Alex and Greg every time I talk with them, which is a quick word association for the other contestants this season. So I’m going to name a contestant, and I’d like just one word for each of them that pops to your mind. Starting with Sanjeev Bhaskar.

Relaxed. Peaceful.

Reece Shearsmith.

Seething.

Phil Ellis.

Gangly.

Maisie Adam.

Furious.

You had a podcast about Succession. Which Succession character do you think would make the best Taskmaster contestant?

Wow, that is an amazing question. I would love to see them all on it, that would be an amazing New Year’s Treat if you had them all. It would match up to how a normal series of Taskmaster is. You’d have Kendall taking it really seriously, really trying to win. You’d have Roman swearing loads and being really dumb. Shiv would actually kind of get stuff done, but would probably accidentally humiliate herself doing it. And then you’d have Logan, who would be like the Sanjeev equivalent but with more anger. I think that could really work.

I also think cousin Greg, if I only had to send one … oh no, but Tom. Tom might actually be the answer. You’d want a lot of extra behind-the-scenes footage. You’d want to see all the tasks, but you’d also want to see how he interacts with the crew, because I think he would want to come out on top, and you’d want the backstage footage of him trying to negotiate his way to the top.

We sent Jason Mantzoukas across the pond for Taskmaster. Is there an American reality or competition show that you would like to be on?

I would like to be a Real Housewife, because I think it would be so weird. Everyone would be like Who is this girl? She hasn’t straightened her hair, her nails aren’t done, she’s not wearing heels, she’s dressed in corduroy. I would just like to get involved in all the drama. I think they would see me as a kind of wise, Oracle, sort of picture book character. They could come to me for advice, and I could do like a Shakespeare quote at them, and then it would help them live their lives. Then I could secretly steal one of their husbands or something. I think that could be quite fun.

I think that would be tremendous. You joked earlier that you needed to win series 20, because you had nothing coming up. What about now? What’s coming up for you?

There’s some stuff I can talk about, some stuff I can’t. I have my tour, which is coming up in February onwards, probably throughout the whole year. That is exciting, because I think it’ll be a different experience. It’s interesting, because I think I'll have audiences who know a bit more who I am, but also my shows tend to be really personal, with stories from my life. I care about them so much, and I put a lot into them, so I think people will probably come away knowing a lot more about me as well, hopefully in a good way. 

That will be exciting, because I think it will feel like a nice continuation from what people have seen on Taskmaster. There are also a few references to Taskmaster thrown in there.

I’ll be touring the UK, Ireland, and I might have some dates in Europe. I would love to come to America one day. I’ve visited – not to perform because I don’t have a work visa, which is expensive. But I do enjoy a lot of American comedians, and I would love to do a comedy nerd trip to the US. But I’d be worried I’d have to rewrite my show, because there are a lot of very British references in there. Do you guys know about Churchill?

Like Winston Churchill?

Yeah.

Some more than others, but I’d say broadly we’re familiar.

I’ll need to rewrite some of the show then, but I would do that for you guys.

Ania Magliano recommends: The Chair Company

I’ve been watching and really enjoying The Chair Company. Not a lot of people in the UK are watching it. I love Tim Robinson so much. He's so funny. He makes me laugh so much. But I like this show. The show is genuinely gripping and really funny in a really weird way. I just love that you have a lot of characters who it feels like could be transposed from I Think You Should Leave but with a plot that is really engaging. It's ticking all the boxes for me as a show right now. There are a lot of throwaway things that are in there just to be funny and a bit weird. Usually when you watch shows, you’re so used to everything leading to something else. And in this show, there’s a nice mix of some stuff coming back and being relevant, and some of it just being dumb for a laugh. And there are just so many funny images from it that stick in my head, but I won't spoil anything.