Alex Horne has revealed some of his comedy heroes and they might not be the ones you expect.

The Taskmaster creator was talking to Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast.

He said: "I do think in comedy, actually, there aren't many arseholes. I did The Wheel recently with Michael McIntyre, who is a real hero of mine, because he blew up pretty quick and he's enormous, you know? He's probably the most well-known comedian in the country, and I think he's so funny. But he's also really nice. People always ask me, what's Michael McIntyre like? I don't know why, but that's the question they ask. And actually, Jimmy Carr as well. Jimmy Carr was so nice to me. We did Montreal together years ago, which is a big comedy festival, and I didn't know anyone, and he took me out to dinner and introduced me to lots of other people.

People wouldn't believe how nice he is. He really looks out for people and he pushes people. Michael’s the same. He's lovely with people. I think if you're in front of the camera, you tend to see the nicer sides of people. But in comedy, I think you have to earn your stripes. And so you do. It’s very rare that someone turns famous at 17 in the comedy world. And I think that's a dangerous place to be. I think if you haven't worked your way up, I think you're more likely to go wrong. Maybe."

He also talked about his good friend Tim Key: "He pretended to go to Cambridge University. When I was there, he lived in a village nearby called Impington. He went to Sheffield. He's a couple of years older than me, which makes me very happy. He turns 49 when I turn 47 in a month or two. He auditioned to be in a pantomime that I wrote when I was at college there, and he turned up and he was by far the funniest person. But then rumour got round that he's not actually a student at Cambridge. He lied, but we sort of brushed under the carpet. 

Some people were outraged. But actually, The Footlights has this reputation of being a bit elitist, but you don't have to be a student to be in it. Anyone can audition. And people don't know this, so it can be. It's meant to be open to all. So, it's great. That's how I met him. And that was 27 years ago. And he's now the godfather, a useless godfather to my eldest. A terrible godfather in a good way. You know, he used to have a system of giving him a pound coin every time he saw him, but that just meant that he actively avoided him."

Horne also talked about his marriage to his wife, broadcaster and Journalist Rachel Horne: "I think we're a good team currently. She's not working. She worked very, very hard. She was the breadwinner for many years as well. She was the one feeding the kids. Now we're sort of a team because I am very busy. So, she enables that. I don't know how working women who then don't work, how they feel.

She's taught herself to say I'm a mum rather than I'm just a mum. She's busier than me, you know, there's a lot of my work which she helps with, whether it's making the books balance, you know, doing the boring stuff that I am really bad at, but also just making sure the kids are in the right place so I can be in the right place, blah blah blah. I don't think either of us are in front or behind of the other in the foreground or whatever. But yeah, she's good at pushing me to remember to have fun and friends. We're annoyingly happy. I do think other people must go, 'for God's sake, can you not just have a visible row?'"

Listed to Alex Horne on White Wine Question time here.

Taskmaster is on C4 on Thursdays at 9pm. 

Picture: Avalon