When Gladiators is filming at the Sheffield Arena, it feels as if everyone is in on the joke. The woman in the ticket office looks at me gravely. \u201cBefore I give you these,\u201d she says, \u201cI need to ask a question. These are very good tickets. You\u2019re in the camera block, near the red contestant\u2019s friends and family. So there\u2019s something I need to know. If the camera is on you, are you going to duck and hide and get all embarrassed? Or are you going to go absolutely flipping mental?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been up until the early hours painting portraits of my favourite Gladiators with the precise hope of making it on to the telly. Of course I\u2019m going to go absolutely flipping mental! I\u2019ve been waiting for this day since 1992.<\/p>\n
That was when Gladiators muscled its way into the Saturday night viewing schedule of every kid in Britain, a copy of an American gameshow that pitted superhuman bodybuilders with silly names against fitness enthusiasts with ordinary jobs. You\u2019d have Saracen using a pugil stick to batter Colin, a painter and decorator from Runcorn; or Lightning chasing Suzie, a dinner lady from Woking, up a climbing wall. It was an immediate playground sensation, spawning catchphrases that are etched indelibly on the memory of every 90s kid. Shout, \u201cContenders, ready!\u201d in a Scottish accent to any of my contemporaries and they will reply, \u201cGladiators, ready!\u201d quicker than they can remember their own children\u2019s birthdays.<\/p>\n
The boys had posters of Jet, the buxom brunette, on their walls. The girls fancied Hunter, a blond with pecs the size of car tyres. Everyone pretended to hate Wolf, the show\u2019s resident villain and theatrical bad loser, who would sometimes be awarded yellow cards for unsportsmanlike behaviour \u2013 one of which he once gobbled in protest.<\/p>\n
The original Gladiators, including bad guy Wolf (front right) \u2026\u2026 being cheered on by an audience in Birmingham. Photographs: ITV\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
You could watch it with your mum and dad without it being embarrassing. You could recreate it in PE when your teacher wasn\u2019t looking. Wolf aside, it was an hour-long lesson in fair play, where the strongest man or woman always won in the end \u2013 in a nail-biting finale known as the Eliminator, which involved a scrambling net, a zipwire and the fearsome 45-degree Travelator.<\/p>\n
Yet when the BBC brought back Gladiators in 2024, the commission was greeted with derision, proof that our public broadcaster had run out of ideas. Alex Mahon, then chief executive of Channel 4, singled it out<\/a> as exactly the sort of thing the BBC shouldn\u2019t be making. But as soon as the titles rolled and everyone over 35 realised they could still remember the lyrics of the theme tune \u2013 \u201cDo you have the speed, the strength, the heart to be a winner? It\u2019s not for beginners\u201d \u2013 it was a hit.<\/p>\n Almost nine million people watched the first episode<\/a>. It vastly overperformed among young people, none of whom were born when the original Gladiators came off air in the year 2000. It\u2019s that rarest of things: a show the whole family can watch together. A slice of silliness in scary times. With the third series about to air, BBC executives will be hoping the Gladiators can unite the nation, shouting at their tellies like they did when Nick Mohammed failed to pick Alan Carr as a traitor<\/a> last autumn.<\/p>\n Thirty-three years after I first booed Wolf in front of a TV dinner, I\u2019m sitting in the third row of the Sheffield Arena waving a foam finger as a contestant crashes to the mat while Another One Bites the Dust booms from the PA. And they say dreams don\u2019t come true.<\/p>\n I\u2019d gone so mad making posters, I even had one that read simply \u201cCLATTENBURG\u201d in honour of Mark Clattenburg, the former badboy of football refereeing who adjudicates in the reboot. I wave it manically in his direction and my friend Danika and I dissolve into schoolgirl giggles when he spots it and makes a heart with his thumbs and forefingers. We both squeal when he first booms the immortal words, \u201cContender, you will go on my first whistle \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n Four months later, I\u2019m in a photo studio in Salford being lifted aloft by five Gladiators. Hammer has \u00a0my feet, Apollo my thighs, Nitro my bottom, Cyclone my shoulders and Dynamite is complaining there is nothing left of me to hold but my head. Nitro, the eldest of the group at 37, takes charge of art direction. \u201cExtend your arm out like Cleopatra,\u201d he instructs. I\u2019m trying to breathe in while enjoying the moment, but Hammer keeps calling me Thunder \u2013 he had asked me just beforehand what my Gladiator name would be \u2013 and I\u2019m struggling to keep it together.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of my mission to discover why Gladiators has recaptured the nation\u2019s hearts and recreated the magic for a whole new generation. And if that means they have to pick me up so that I can test their strength, well, I\u2019m here to serve.<\/p>\n The Catapult challenge in the original series \u2026 Photograph: ITV\/Shutterstock\u2026 and new Gladiator Giant battling Sam Thompson in a celebrity special. Photograph: Graeme Hunter\/BBC\/Hungry Bear Media Ltd<\/p>\n Soon I\u2019m sitting on a sofa with Apollo, all 6ft 6in of him squeezed into his red and blue unitard. With his floppy hair and smooth skin, Apollo looks as if he has aged out of a boyband, though he is in fact a former England rugby player and American football tight end<\/a>. There\u2019s a touch of Alan Partridge to Apollo, real name Alex Gray. I ask how old he is and he says, \u201cI\u2019ve been 29 for the past five years.\u201d His persona is of a nice guy with an arrogant edge. He recites poetry between challenges (self-penned, he assures me \u2013 \u201cThe new Shakespeare, they\u2019re saying\u201d) and pretends everyone fancies him.<\/p>\n I ask him to introduce himself for the tape. He replies in verse: \u201cI am the man of the hour, a guy too sweet to be sour, who guys want to be mates with, and girls want to go on dates with.\u201d Guys don\u2019t just want to be mates with you, Apollo! You\u2019re a gay icon, I say. \u201cGuilty,\u201d he replies. \u201cI\u2018ve got a lot of love from all sorts of different diverse communities, which has been fantastic. The gays, the mums, the teenage girls.\u201d<\/p>\n So, then, Apollo, are you single? As the words come out of my mouth, I realise I sound like a bit of a pervert. I plough on regardless. Is he on the celebrity dating app, Raya? He laughs and dodges the question. \u201cI\u2019m gonna be honest with you, I\u2019ve probably never been more wanted in my life, but I\u2019ve never been more cautious. There\u2019s a responsibility that comes with being a Gladiator and I don\u2019t take it lightly. You know, I love playing up to the myth of Apollo but at the same time I wanna be a decent person and when I\u2019m not on the show, I like to keep out of trouble as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n After Gregg Wallace-gate and various Strictly scandals, the BBC cannot afford any whiff of controversy around another prime-time show. That\u2019s why the Gladiators are drug tested each season. Giant, a man mountain with a ridiculous triangular torso, had to apologise last year when a video emerged of him<\/a> seemingly posting about taking steroids in his pre-Gladiator life as a bodybuilder (\u201cTake this and you\u2019ll get big,\u201d he allegedly promised). He was supposed to be at the shoot but is too busy appearing in panto in Chesterfield (he\u2019s in Jack and the Beanstalk, playing \u2026 the giant, of course).<\/p>\n \u2018A man mountain with a ridiculous triangular torso\u2019: Giant, AKA Jamie Christian-Johal. Photograph: David MacCormack\/BBC\/Hungry Bear Media Ltd<\/p>\n You won\u2019t catch the Gladiators falling out of nightclubs either, or falling prey to kiss\u2019n\u2019tells. Hammer \u2013 another 6ft 6-er, a champion indoor rower called Tom Wilson \u2013 looks like a bit of a lad, though I know full well he\u2019s engaged because his fiance was sitting behind me at the Arena, where she politely but firmly refused to tell me whether Gladiators put the bins out. I tell him I like to imagine him out on the lash with Giant and Bionic, yet another 6ft 6in monolith who has bleached blond hair like an early career Gary Barlow. He insists that simply does not happen. \u201cNo, not at all. We like to just keep fit and stay away from anything like that really, because it affects your sleep, it affects your recovery and I think it\u2019s important just to be super fit and super recovered and super rested,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Part of Gladiators\u2019 success is its appeal to young and old. Apollo pitches his lines at the adults in the audience, like when he fishes a mobile phone out of his Lycra in season two and seems to take a call after being beaten <\/a>on the climbing wall. \u201cYour mum says hello,\u201d he shouts up to the victorious contender. He lets me into a secret. He hadn\u2019t had the phone on him all the time. \u201cAs you can see,\u201d he says, gesturing to his hot pants and making me blush, \u201cthere\u2019s not enough room.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of the 18 Gladiators has a slightly different outfit to showcase their special powers or, in the case of Nitro\u2019s scoop-necked number, their outrageous pecs. Five are made for each character each season and they are not allowed to keep them when they are not on duty. \u201cThey don\u2019t trust me \u2019cause they know I would go down the shops in it,\u201d Apollo says.<\/p>\n Hammer is the only one who has a prop (it\u2019s a hammer). He feigns outrage when I suggest he is only pretending it is heavy. \u201cWhen you\u2019re swinging that around, you sure know about it,\u201d he insists. I am disappointed the hammer has not made it to the photoshoot but the PR says that would have been her job \u201cand it\u2019s 15kg, that thing\u201d. Hammer is the viking of the group, with long dark locks that I\u2019d heard were bulked out with hair extensions. He\u2019s having none of it. \u201cThis is all mine,\u201d he says, gesturing to the man bun he wears when he is not in character. Up close, I do detect a touch of Just For Men in his beard, though.<\/p>\n Original referee John Anderson \u2026 Photograph: ITV\/Shutterstock\u2026 and new boy Mark Clattenburg, with (from left) Viper, AKA Quang Luong, co-host Bradley Walsh and contender Finley Burkitt. Photograph: BBC\/Hungry Bear Media Ltd<\/p>\n The modern-day Gladiators make most of their money now as social media influencers, but 22-year-old Dynamite \u2013 CrossFit and weightlifting champion Emily Steel \u2013 is hoping for at least a side hustle in music. During the shoot she is writing lyrics for a duet with Apollo, who will apparently be contributing his poetry to the verses. Some of the original 90s Gladiators are still profiting from the show. Fabio, the Guardian photographer, tells me that this year alone he has done two shoots with Wolf<\/a> for a German garage door company. Others have gone in an entirely different direction. Hunter<\/a> is now a gong bath healer.<\/p>\n It was the show\u2019s producers who came up with the Gladiator characters, then cast them afterwards. Resident baddie Legend, AKA fitness influencer Matt Morsia, did not have to work hard to behave like an arrogant show-off. He vies with Viper \u2013 former model Quang Luong \u2013 as the reboot\u2019s Wolf. When I watch the show in Sheffield, little children scream with equal terror and delight as Viper \u2013 who growls instead of speaks \u2013 rampages through the stands to rip up their posters.<\/p>\n The biggest pat on the back we get is when families say, \u2018You\u2019ve brought us back together.\u2019 It feels like I\u2019m playing for England<\/p>\n Nitro \u2013 former champion sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, who is probably the most famous of the current crop after his appearance on this year\u2019s Strictly \u2013 recalls walking through a supermarket and being stopped by a little girl and her dad. \u201cI said, \u2018Who\u2019s your favourite Gladiator?\u2019 And the girl stopped and gave me a deep stare and said, \u2018Viper.\u2019 I asked why and she said, \u2018Because he\u2019s naughty!\u2019 And I think to myself, that girl could probably have a few red flags in her life. But you know, if she likes him, she likes him. A little five-year-old, sweetest little thing, dressed in a pink dress.\u201d<\/p>\n