“I regret that I didn’t get a cup,” the comedian Phil Wang says when asked about the costume he wore on Taskmaster. For continuity reasons, contestants are asked to wear one outfit – or several versions of the same outfit – throughout filming for the cult Channel 4 show. Given that many of the challenges, or “tasks”, they face are often physical in nature, the safest option is clothing that is unrestrictive. Wang chose a yellow jumpsuit in homage to the martial arts legend and fellow East Asian actor Bruce Lee, who wore something similar in Game Of Death. Wang’s jumpsuit certainly was unrestrictive.

“They had to crop my bottom half out of certain shots, to make it kid-friendly, which was never my intention,” Wang says. “I learnt far too late you can get ‘dance pants’, which squish your junk flush. And I wish I’d got that. Or like a drag queen – I should have learnt about tucking…”

Someone who could’ve offered Wang sartorial guidance was his good friend, George Fouracres, who features alongside him in this video, both of them wearing Mr P. The two have known each other since university in Cambridge.

“George turned up at my college bar one night,” Wang says of their first encounter. “He was dressed like he was in Jeeves And Wooster or something, fully suited and booted. It was incredible. I just remember him being eccentric and funny, easy to get on with. He’s very interested in everything, George… which is always helpful when you meet someone for the first time.”

Wang went on to become the president of the Footlights society (previous incumbents include Peter Cook, Eric Idle, Hugh Laurie and Richard Ayoade), while the pair formed the sketch troupe, Daphne, with Jason Forbes, now a comedy writer and actor. Foreshadowing a later career move, the trio performed a skit based on Roald Dahl’s fictional chocolatier, Willy Wonka, although Wang says he has no memory of this.

These days, Wang is one of Britain’s most prominent comedians, regularly appearing on panel shows and soon to be touring a new live show, UH OH. But you might have also spotted him dancing on a table in 2023’s Wonka. During the filming of which, he broke his arm. Or rather, he “fractured a bone in my elbow, the radial head, and burst something called the bursae,” he says with specificity (his mum is a rheumatologist). “The whole arm was, like, black.”

In his scene, Wang jumps up as a tablecloth is whipped out from under him. “On the final take, they – ironically – said, ‘Let’s do one more for safety’,” he recalls. “I was quite tired by then and so when I jumped up, I jumped a bit too low.” His foot caught the tablecloth, bringing down both him and the table.

Worse than the injury itself, he says, was the feeling of humiliation in front of the movie’s cast. “That’s all I could think of as I was descending through the air,” Wang says. “You know those moments where time slows down. All I could think was, ‘Oh, Timothée Chalamet is right there. This is so embarrassing.’”

It meant that Wang also didn’t get a chance for one of his favourite icebreakers – to ask Chalamet to rank carbohydrates. “I think security might have dragged me away,” Wang says. “He’s asking Chalamet about potatoes. Get him out of here.”

(For the record, the comedian’s own ranking of carbohydrates goes: noodles, rice, pasta, potatoes, bread. “Bread is bottom,” he says. “I’ve made a lot of enemies over this.”)

Fouracres, meanwhile, is currently starring in Saturday Night Live UK, the British spin-off of the long-running American satirical institution. “He’s really excited,” Wang said before the show’s launch. “Whenever you make something that’s going to have eyes on it, that has a history and a legacy to live up to, that’s always going to be really nerve-wracking. But I think the good stuff always comes out of high-pressure situations, you know? He’s perfect for it, and he’ll be so good.”

Towards the end of our conversation, Wang receives confirmation from the other members of Daphne, that they had, in fact, performed that sketch about Wonka. “12 Years A Slave with Oompa-Loompas,” Wang says. “I’d forgotten about it.” That’s what friends are for.