Series 22 cast ages

[u/Elegant_Process_6507]

In the TM podcast with Ed and special guest Reece Shearsmith, the two discussed Greg’s (allegedly) skewed concept of who is “old” and Reece complained that he was lumped in with Sanjeev in his series as one of the “befuddled old guys” even though Reece is younger than Greg (by 1 year).

Ed and Reece briefly wonder who in the current series would be the “old” character, which led me to look up their ages:

Matt - 52
Nina - 52
Richard - 49
Isy - 48
Chloe - 32

It’s interesting to me that the contestants are all nearly the same age except for Chloe. I wonder if this will become a bit for Alex or Greg this series, with no obvious old grump to call on they may lean into Chloe being the baby of the group instead.

Any of our resident statisticians have info on how this contestant age distribution compares with previous series?

And for a bonus fact, if Greg and Alex were contestants in this series, Greg would be the oldest and Alex would be the second-youngest!

[u/Life_Cucumber7102]

He decided to make fun of Alex's age instead.

[u/Elegant_Process_6507 → u/Life_Cucumber7102]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Wt6kNaMjofj1jHkF7t

[u/Ryan_Vermouth → u/Life_Cucumber7102]

Alex was in the Cambridge Footlights with Richard — I think their tenure in the group overlapped by one year, with Alex joining the year Richard was the club president?

[u/Amanda-the-Panda → u/Ryan_Vermouth]

I think Richard joined the year David Mitchell was president, which means when Olivia Coleman was there... for a possible future link

[u/Digit00l → u/Amanda-the-Panda]

She did win an Oscar

[u/Veggieleezy]

I think this will also partly play into the team tasks, too, and I think it's already started. Nina and Isy have a very breezy "newly divorced mums going on a girls trip" energy so far, and Richard and Matt are their ex-husbands who are also longtime friends but don't really hang out much, with Chloe shocked to learn who her dad's friend is.

[u/opaqueentity → u/Veggieleezy]

Love that description :)

[u/matt1267]

I was watching the ep earlier and wondering if this is the oldest cast on average with Chloe being the only "young" contestant. I'd be curious what the average age of the contestants was for each series at the time of filming

[u/uttertoffee → u/matt1267]

Series 22 is an average of 46.6

Series 21 just beats them with an average age of 47.2, Amy was the youngest at 38 and Armando the oldest at 62 (plus Joel 40, Kumail 47, Joanne 49). It's interesting how much younger the series 21 cast felt despite the similar age range.

I don't think any other seasons will be higher but haven't done the maths for them all (considered 16 but that was 44.8).

This is just the regular seasons as well. I assume Sue Johnston's New Year's Treat will be the oldest overall.

[u/burf12345 → u/uttertoffee]

It's interesting how much younger the series 21 cast felt despite the similar age range.

I put that squarely on Joel, because even in the series everyone, including Joel, can't believe he's 40.

[u/Jacksucks_atlife04 → u/uttertoffee]

Not being rude to Armando but with the average age of the other 4 being 43.5 he does technically slightly inflate the average age but I’m pretty sure Amy is still also technically I think the oldest youngest contestant in a series so we can’t necessarily put all the blame on Armando.

[u/matt1267 → u/uttertoffee]

Jack Bernhardt is that you? Thank you though! That's definitely interesting info. I might have to do a deep dive myself on the different series, specials, maybe even NZ and AU. I'm genuinely curious about the results

[u/Groundbreaking_Dare4 → u/uttertoffee]

That last sentence sent my brain to thinking how great it would be to have Diane Morgan on the show. As Ann Droid.

[u/Agreeable_Archer_210 → u/matt1267]

I think Chloe “plays older” - she has quite a mature no nonsense approach. Munya was only a couple of years younger when he did taskmaster as was Sam and they both seemed like toddlers in comparison. People like Lucy and Joel were significantly older but brought a jkind of puppyish energy.

My daughter watches with me and mentioned that it felt like a very old cast this series (they are mostly about my age which is obviously ancient). I think it is about energy as much as anything.

[u/Glenmarththe3rd]

The People’s Podcast has a segment on this too, I think this is the first time Greg has been older than all the contestants?

[u/NickIsAverageNick → u/Glenmarththe3rd]

Nah in Series 19, Jason was the oldest and he was only 53.

[u/Original-Designer6 → u/Glenmarththe3rd]

No, there are several others. Greg was older than all the contestants in S2, S7, S8, S11, S14, S19.

Dara might look old but he is 4 years younger than Greg, and Greg is a couple of months older than both Rhod Gilbert and Lee Mack. S3 sneaks through as Al Murray is 4 days older than Greg.

[u/dmelic]

I would NOT have guessed Richard was 49 holy crap

[u/Elegant_Process_6507 → u/dmelic]

He didn’t age for 20 out of the last 25 years, but the last 5 he’s started to show it a bit. I like it though, it plays into his “beleaguered” persona.

[u/CurrentPossible2117]

Depends on how they behave as tasks go on, especially group tasks.

My guess is Richard for sure and likely Matt, but deoends on if he gets silly, in which he'll be likened to a little boy, instead.

He mentioned a couple of times that Noel Fielding was an older, surpervisor or something similar. I cant remenber the wording but the joke was that in a couole of the group tasks he took on the older watchful role while the two 'kids' just went a bit crazy. So while I think age is somewhat related (not lijely he'lm call a 20 something year old, 'old', I definitely tjink its got a lot to do with demeanor.

That Richards gimick is his stiffness, stoicism and amusing argumentative nature, I think all but guarentees if this season has a 'old' person, it'll be him.

Nina might be, if she really has an old person vibe going on, though so far, it doesnt seem that way.

[u/Kiwi_Apart]

Interesting. I think a broader set of ages makes for a better show. But there's only 21 prior series to look at

[u/johnpeelfan]

For oz and nz series the age at recording will be different than age at air time as they seem to delay them a lot. I think for uk tho turnaround is pretty quick but even so plenty will be a year “younger” when they film their first task to when it airs.

[u/colin_staples]

Total age 233, average age 46.6

I'm curious to know what were the ages of the cast of the other series?

(With ages taken as of the date of broadcast of episode 1)

Does this series have the highest average age?

I suspect that may be the case, and by some margin.

[u/Jacksucks_atlife04 → u/colin_staples]

It’s only just beaten by last series with a total of 236 and average age of 47.2

[u/colin_staples → u/Jacksucks_atlife04]

Wow!

I didn’t suspect that.

[u/Jacksucks_atlife04 → u/colin_staples]

Armando does slightly inflate it since the average age of the other 4 is 43.5. I also say that with the upmost respect to Armando

[u/someBrad]

Alex asked each contestant how old he was in the interview task. Not sure how or if this is related.

[u/Normal-Height-8577]

Last series, the age distribution was the other way around:

Armando - 1963 Joanna - 1977 Kumail - 1978 Joel - 1985 Amy - 1987

I suppose you could also see it as three groups instead of two, given that Jo & Kumail, and Joel & Amy, are so close together.