Taskmaster star delights fans with League of Gentlemen nod

Taskmaster season 17 spoilers follow.

Taskmaster has returned with a brand new line-up for its 17th season, leaving Steve Pemberton fans in stitches over an accidental The League of Gentlemen nod.

The new series was back tonight (March 28) with Taskmaster Greg Davies at the helm, aided by Alex Horne on co-hosting duties.

This year's contestants — Joanne McNally, John Robins, Nick Mohammed and Sophie Willan alongside Permberton — were called to do their best in a series of bizarre tasks, including a complicated team task requiring them to draw an animal.

Related: Taskmaster apologises over live event mishap

Pemberton was paired with Mohammed, and the two of them had to create the best single picture of an animal doing something surprising whilst separated by six blinds and unable to look at each other's work.

To make the task even more complicated, the Inside No. 9 and Ted Lasso actors could only communicate by way of two-word sentences, which resulted in a hilarious exchange.

The two comedians settled on drawing a giraffe with their "private parts" on display, which sounds pretty funny as it is. The task reached a whole new level when Pemberton asked "Legs akimbo?" to which Mohammed replied "Yes, please".

"Private parts?" Pemberton continued only for Mohammed to answer "Big ones".

Related: Taskmaster's Mae Martin announces next TV role

Though possibly unintentional, fans immediately spotted Pemberton's "legs akimbo" nod to Legz Akimbo, the theatre-in-education group featured in surreal series The League of Gentlemen, which first aired in 1999.

"Steve's already referenced legz akimbo, this series is gonna be great for those fans," one person noted on Twitter/X.

"STEVE JUST SAID LEGZ AKIMBO," another fan wrote. "ITS NOT WHAT HE MEANT BUT NOW I CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT LEGZ AKIMBO THEATRE COMPANY."

The episode ended with Pemberton stealing a last-minute win in a tiebreaker, surpassing McNally and becoming a possible favourite to lift Greg's gilded head in the finale.

Taskmaster airs and streams on Thursday nights at 9pm on Channel 4, where you can also stream previous series.

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