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When Joanna Page got a call from her agent asking her whether she wanted to do Taskmaster, her first thought was: ‘Oh my God, no’.
It’s been over a year since the nation said goodbye to Gavin and Stacey – in which the 49-year-old Welsh actor played the titular Stacey Shipman over two decades – with a finale filming experience that involved bucketloads of sobbing (but we’ll get to that).
But what’s scarier than closing a door on the familiar? Well, plunging headfirst into the unknown, of course. So, naturally, that’s Joanna’s plan for her first foray back to the small screen, as she tells Metro.
She’s starring in the hit Channel 4 game show Taskmaster alongside presenter Joel Dommet (‘he’s like a labrador’); The Thick of It’s Armando Iannucci (‘just so clever’); comedian Amy Gledhill (‘so Northern and absolutely gorgeous’); and Hollywood’s very own Kumail Nanjiani (‘handsome and charming’).
‘I’ve been a huge, huge fan of the show ever since it first started. I’ve watched all of the series with my children. A big fan favourite in the house.
‘The kids would say to me: “Would you ever do it?” And I was like: “Oh, my God, no way. I’m not a comedian. I would be absolutely terrified,”‘ she reminisces.
Still, like any public figure with a funny bone to their name, Taskmaster soon came knocking, and Joanna had to face her fears head-on.
‘I got a phone call from my agent, completely out of the blue, saying: “Will you do Taskmaster?” My first thought was: “Oh my God, no, I don’t think I can do it.”
‘Then I thought: “For God’s sake, [your family] will absolutely kill you if you do not do it.” This would be the one thing that they would be like: “Oh my God, you are the best mother in the world.”‘
‘They would never, ever forgive me if I said no purely because I was too nervous, so I thought: “Right, come on, you’ve got to do something that scares you.”‘
In a show where nearly nothing is out of bounds and no idea is too bonkers, the nerves soon dissipated, and she decided to ‘really majorly commit to it’ the second the cameras started rolling – leaving the cast and crew ‘shocked’.
Although she didn’t go in with the mindset of being better than everyone else, she certainly didn’t hold back.
‘People think that I am very sweet and very nice and everything, but I’m an actress. I’m an Aries, very ambitious and pretty ruthless, and I throw myself into stuff.
‘I don’t have really any embarrassment or shame. I’m used to completely exposing myself as an actress, so I can honestly say that I didn’t hold back with anything.’
Still, when asked if there’s anything she can’t believe will air on TV, she does recall one moment with a gleam in her eyes.
She caveats: ‘It isn’t even anything that’s particularly awful or embarrassing or that I’ve massively gone for it, but there is one bit that I did really laugh at.
‘It’s a bit that people won’t expect it to be. I was acting with something else, [not] a human [but] a furry animal, kind of. I would have been more embarrassed if I hadn’t thrown myself into it [and] made a fool of myself, because that’s the point.’
For Joanna, though, the cherry on top was managing to amuse the eponymous Taskmaster himself, Gregg Davies, whom she found to be ‘quite cutting’ and ‘genuinely scary’.
‘It’s an utter joy if you suddenly see a little glimmer in his eye. You think: “Oh my god, I cracked him,”‘ she adds.
After appearing on the show with Last One Laughing’s very own Amy, I ask if it’s inspired her to give the Amazon Prime hit a try next.
‘There was talk about me meeting them and I was very much like: “No, I don’t think so.” I love the show, but, yet again, I’m not a stand-up. But it’s funny watching the second series,’ she says.
But never say never, as she continues: ‘Maybe in the future, it might be something that I might go: “oh, I don’t know, could I give it a go?”‘
This marks a new era for Joanna, who closed the door on Gavin and Stacey in 2024 – a filming process she describes as ‘borderline traumatic’.
‘By the time we’d filmed for however many weeks it was, I had been crying every single day.
‘The last day, I cried literally all day, to the point where I started panicking, thinking: “I really don’t want to be the one that messes up the end of Gavin and Stacey because I can’t get any of my lines out.” But I managed to pull it together.’
Still, all that ‘sobbing’ had a purpose.
‘From then on, I’ve been perfectly fine, because I don’t think I could have grieved it and cried any more for it than I did all the way through filming,’ she jokes.
And now she can simply appreciate the long-lasting impact the show has had on its wide-ranging fanbase.
‘Not a single day goes by that somebody doesn’t come up to me and say: “Oh my god, absolutely love the show.” It’s lovely because it’s like it’s still here all the time, but I’ve finally laid it to rest.’
For now, she’s cheering on the friends she’s collected over the years from the sidelines. As a veteran presenter, does she have a dream Strictly duo, I ask.
‘I would love it to be Rylan, because he lifts everything. I could sit and listen to him for hours, and I would definitely tune in to watch him,’ she says without hesitation.
And who better to join him than The One Show’s very own Alex Jones.
‘I know that she’d hold it all together because she’s so professional, but also she’s really cheeky and funny. The pair of those together would be a bit of starlight and magic.’
As for her own future on screen, 23 years on from Love Actually, she’s more than open to a return to the world of rom-coms.
‘I would probably like to do a middle-aged rom-com, and my husband could star opposite me,’ she says, before realising she doesn’t have to stop there.
‘Or I might go down the Emma Thompson vein, and I could be middle-aged woman doing a rom-com, and then I might have a young Jacob Elordi as my rom-com partner.’
Dashing 28-year-old Aussie actors aside, ultimately, she only has one dream role she’s almost ready to make a reality.
‘Oh God, I’d love to play Miss Marple. I know people would say that it’s really boring, but I love murder mysteries.
‘Give me a couple of years, and please just put me in a cottage in the Cotswolds or somewhere with a little fence and lots of flowers in the front garden. Put a body in the front garden as well, and let me solve a crime.’
Then, in a moment of perfect clarity, she declares: ‘We could merge both things: Middle-aged Marple solving crimes whilst also having a rom-com relationship with Jacob Elordi – I think that would be perfect.’
Taskmaster season 21 airs on Thursday, April 9 at 9pm on Channel 4.
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