WEM’s Greg Davies has told of how being Taskmaster has ‘given me power’ after appearing on one of America’s biggest chat shows.

The pair appeared on Late Night with Seth Myers this week to talk about the launch of series 17 of the show, now on Channel 4 but started life on Dave, which is shown via YouTube in America.

The former Thomas Adams School pupil plays the titular Taskmaster, which he told the show ‘plays right into my ego’.

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And he also explained how he has embraced the role of ‘destroying’ the contestants, as he appeared with his sidekick and Taskmaster creator ‘Little’ Alex Horne (LAH).

He said: “Alex and I always laugh because some of these people are our friends.

“But there’s something about the show and when you step into the Taskmaster world, people do see me as this despotic lunatic who’s in charge.

“And it goes to my head – everything has played to my ego.

“It’s ruined by my personal life because I start to believe that I have this incredible power.”

Alex interjected to say he did have that power, telling a story that when collecting visas to travel to New York City, soldiers with guns asked Greg for a selfie ‘with the Taskmaster’.

Greg added: “They were sort of ‘sorry we’ve got guns’.”

Regarding the selection of Greg as Taskmaster, the pair explained the main reason why it was the Wem man and not LAH.

“Because he’s a fundamentally weak man,” said Greg, who denied his sidekick was a tall man.

“He’s creative I won’t take that from him.

“He’s 5”5 at most – I have a theory that he deliberately annoys me on set because I have to be irritated.”

Alex explained the concept of the show to his host.

“We have five comedians every series over 10 episodes and they come to a special place to compete against each other to complete tasks that I set to impress a giant.”

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To which Greg said: “I am the giant.”

The pair also described the brilliance of Frank Skinner, in series one, taking a six-foot boulder on a train to Heathrow Airport but that it was not filmed because of legal restrictions, and yet he still carried out the task.

Series 17 of Taskmaster is on Channel 4 each Thursday night at 9pm for the next nine weeks.