'Virgil van Dijk would be great on Taskmaster!'

The comedian certainly doesn't mind humiliating himself and colleagues to millions on TV, though would draw the line at doing so in front of the team he's supported since he was a child. 

Liverpoolfc.com caught up with Horne to talk about growing up a Red and who'd be a suitable contestant from Jürgen Klopp's squad for his award-winning show. Read on for the interview...

Alex, let's start with the most obvious question. Which Liverpool player would be the best on Taskmaster and why?

Yeah, that's the most obvious question! I have thought about it. I don't know about you, but if I'm talking with my mates, we quite often try to imagine which footballers would enjoy our company. It's not often a huge list. But I've managed to get to know Peter Crouch a bit thankfully doing a show last summer and I met Jamie Redknapp through that. Both of them would be great at Taskmaster, especially Jamie who's really competitive and takes himself seriously but he knows where to draw the line. Both of them would be great.

But out of the current squad, it's got to be Virgil van Dijk. Because I think he's the best at everything and I think he's got a really good sense of humour. I think he's the coolest man in the world and you can do the show with an injury, so this would be a good outlet for him while he's out!

Do you think the boss would make a good Taskmaster or is he far too compassionate? 

That's a really good question. I think he'd be putting his arm around people a lot, but he gets pretty cross and he's got high standards. I'd watch that. If Greg was out of action for a season and we got Jürgen, I mean I genuinely think that's brilliant casting. I think what Greg and Jürgen have both got is that you really want to please them, you want to play for them. Klopp’s a big guy, bigger than you expect, so I think he'd be great.

Maybe you could try to wangle an afternoon with the squad. Set some unusual tasks under the guise of 'team building'... 

I would so love that. So, Russell Howard is sort of the Liverpool mascot when it comes to comedians. I know he's met the squad and performed for them before. I think I would be so nervous, I wouldn't be able to look them in the eye. I would love to and if the opportunity ever came up, I would. For the last year or two, the Wolves team have been doing tasks, they've set up their own Taskmaster channel on YouTube. That has made me think maybe there is something in sportspeople doing it. But I think I'd be tongue-tied. I've met quite a few famous people but current footballers, even though they're all half my age now, I think I wouldn't be able to cope with it.

So, then, why Liverpool for you? 

Well it's embarrassing because there's no easy way of saying that they were good when I was six years old. I was born in '78, my little brother looked like Sammy Lee and he actually supported Everton. We swapped and chopped and changed a bit – I've got two brothers – when we were seven, six and five. For some reason, he abandoned Liverpool at the age of four and went to Everton.

We were born on the south coast, somewhere between Brighton and Southampton – I probably should be a Brighton fan – but I picked Liverpool. My dad's a Tottenham fan and didn't push us in that direction. Then Liverpool won everything when I was growing up and obviously you can't change, so that was it really. I'm very happy when they win and when they won the league last year. I've got three boys now and they're all Liverpool fans and they've inherited it. It's just what happened really. No regrets and I'm glad I'm not an Everton fan.

I've read that you were in Istanbul in 2005...

I would say that was definitely the best day of that year, and maybe of my life, and I also got married that year. That's been on record and I've been in trouble for saying that before. My wife's family are all Liverpool fans and are all from Belfast and are season ticket holders. So I got my father-in-law's ticket for that game, which I don't know if he regrets giving it to me, but I'm forever grateful for that. So I went with my brother-in-law and we weren't very tactile before that, but we couldn't stop hugging each other. It was so emotional.

Given your dad is a Spurs fan, that must've made the 2019 Champions League final quite interesting...

It was my wife's 40th birthday party that night, which I organised, and we had to have a big screen up with the game on. She was very nice and put up with that. There were a few Tottenham fans there, a few Liverpool fans. We're not a very competitive family and I get very sad when Tottenham lose because he hadn't seen them win anything for many a year, let alone the Champions League. If Liverpool had lost, it actually would've been a silver lining for me. We're not the sort of family that'd phone up and gloat. I don't mind Tottenham but I was very happy we won. We're quite a nice family really, we don't tease each other.

Who was the player you idolised the most growing up?

I always said I wanted to be Ian Rush when I grew up and I don't know why, except that he scored the goals. I think it was as simple as that. I know now John Barnes was probably the correct answer, I think he was the real player in that team. But I liked people like Jan Molby and Ronny Rosenthal as well, I like the characters. I think I like people with moustaches – I like Lawrenson and Grobbelaar. Grobbelaar played for my local team Chesham briefly. After he retired he had a season here, so I really like him. But Rush is my answer. I was always confused by John Aldridge as well. I couldn't understand how he looked so similar to Ian Rush and played in the same position. 

Obviously being a stand-up comedian can be massively nerve-wracking. What'd make you more nervous – a big stand-up gig or taking a penalty in the Champions League final?

I don't actually find stand-up nerve-wracking at all. I know people always say it must be the most nerve-wracking thing to do, but once you've done it enough it's just your job and the worst that can happen is people don't laugh and then go home. But if you miss a penalty in the Champions League final, if you miss a penalty in any game, it's bad enough, but if it's televised and it's for history... What I found most nerve-wracking playing football is when the ball came across, quite an easy cross, and you had no-one to beat, you're on the six-yard line, but the ball's moving at a decent pace and trying to make that contact, when you've got too much time to think about it. So I think with a penalty I would really struggle.

Taskmaster is on at 9pm on Thursdays on Channel 4 in the UK and catch up on All 4