Gladiators (1992 British TV series)
Gladiators is a British sports entertainment game show, produced by London Weekend Television, presented by Ulrika Jonsson and narrated by John Sachs, and originally broadcast on ITV. Based upon the American television programme American Gladiators, the show sees four contestants, split into pairs by gender, compete in a series of physically challenging events against the show's resident "Gladiators", before competing against their respective contestant in one final event. Each series functions like a tournament, with the winner of that year's competition being crowned champion for their respective gender.
During its original run, between 10 October 1992 and 1 January 2000, Jonsson presented the programme alongside two different co-presenters, John Fashanu and Jeremy Guscott, with Sachs providing commentary on each event, and John Anderson serving as referee for each event. The show proved popular for ITV, spawning a media franchise with other countries, a children's spin-off titled Gladiators: Train 2 Win, merchandise, a series of live arena shows and inspired the 1998 ITV game show Ice Warriors. Despite its popularity, the show courted several controversies during its history, particularly with some of its Gladiators, while falling viewing numbers led to the programme being cancelled after eight series, including five special series.
Gladiators has since received two revivals after its conclusion. The first revival was created in 2008 for Sky1, running for two series but with changes to the format. The second revival, which began airing on 13 January 2024 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, returned to the original format with a brand new set of Gladiators. This Revival remains active and successful as of 2026, with a third Series airing as of January 2026 and a fourth Series confirmed for 2027.
Format
In Gladiators, participating contestants competed in a series of physically challenging events, the majority of which saw them faring against the show's resident Gladiators, in order to win against their opponents. Each episode featured four contestants – two men and two women – who competed in events within their respective genders. All contestants seeking to participate in a series were screened and required to undergo a series of rigorous fitness tests before they were selected to take part:Gladiators Entry Test
- Bike – 1km
- Rowing – 500m
- Benchpress – 40kg
- Treadmill – 800m
- Pressups – 30 reps
For the main events of the show, the contestants focused on scoring points while competing against the clock. In these events, their rules dictated how points were earned, whether a contestant was on their own or competing against each other in their gender, and whether the Gladiator impeded contestants or could directly defeat them and thus prevent them winning points. All events were overseen by a referee who could stop proceedings if a Gladiator or contestant was not following the rules or if safety gear had accidentally come off during the event; the referee could also disqualify contestants and Gladiators if a breach of the rules occurred during the event.
For most events, ten points was awarded if the contestant won the event, and five points if they came runner-up or hold out until time ran out on the event – an example of this was in Duel: the contestant won ten points for defeating the Gladiator, or five points if they could stay in position until time ran out. For other events, the points were based on the scores achieved in the event. After the final Gladiator-involved event was completed, the contestant in each pair who was in the lead received a timed head start for the Eliminator, based on the point difference between the pair. This head start was calculated as half a second for each point by which they led; thus, a contestant with a five-point lead, for example, began with a 2.5 second head start on their opponent.
Most series had a total of fifteen episodes allotted to them, with events randomised for each episode; the exception was the first series. Series regularly saw changes in events, with new ones added in over its history, and existing ones being modified or removed for safety reasons, with the number of events dictated by time constraints depending on the timeslot given to the programme by ITV. Alongside the main series, Gladiators occasionally featured a celebrity or charity special after the grand final, alongside five different specials with fewer episodes than the main series. By the seventh series, the show included behind-the-scenes aspects, including clips of the contenders selections, and training as well as clips showing the contenders choosing which Gladiator they would face on a certain game via coin toss.
Cast
Presenters
Throughout the show's history, Gladiators was primarily presented by Ulrika Jonsson, following her departure from ITV's breakfast show TV-am in the early 1990s, with commentary on the events handled by John Sachs. For the first five series, Jonsson was accompanied by former professional footballer John Fashanu as her co-presenter, despite him not having any hosting experience. After his departure following the fifth series, Fashanu was replaced for the sixth and seventh series by former professional rugby union player Jeremy Guscott; when the game show came to its close, Fashanu returned to co-present with Jonsson to its eighth and final series.Referee
Because the game show relied on sports-like events for challenging contestants, Gladiators required a referee to oversee the competition. For this role, production hired on John Anderson, whose background in sports coaching made him perfect for the task at hand. Throughout the show's history, he took his work seriously, although with a light-hearted attitude when overseeing celebrity and charity specials. While he maintained and enforced the rules, he was accompanied by an assistant who kept official count of the event's time; the role was primarily filled by the associate producer Andrew Norgate.The Gladiators
The titular "Gladiators" for the show were groups of men and women, mainly bodybuilders and athletes, auditioned by the production staff to provide an additional challenge for contestants – often with notable differences to them in terms of height and weight. While most were recruited before the show began, some Gladiators were chosen after initially applying to be contestants on the show or who had competed originally in the live shows. All participating Gladiators had their own identity, and, until 1998, had specially-designed uniforms reflecting that identity.The following below is a list of Gladiators per gender, their real name, and their appearances in the main series and live shows:
Injuries
Working as a Gladiator carried significant risks in events, with several of those who partook in the show later retiring after suffering serious injury in competition, whether during the series, or during the live shows. The most significant retirement was that of Helen O'Reilly – during an event that was televised, she suffered a serious accident when she fell head first onto crash mats in the game Tilt, receiving severe neck and back injuries; while she recovered and later returned, she was forced to retire when the effects of the accident caused problems. Other retirements caused by injuries included:- Diane Youdale, who suffered a neck injury while partaking in Pyramid during a live show in 1996; the incident led to the event being discontinued.
- Sharron Davies, who received a severe knee injury in 1996 whilst training for that year's series.
- Kate Staples, who was forced to leave the show after the 1996 series having suffered an injury during training for an event.
- Judy Simpson, who contracted a severe virus during the Australian special in 1995; she was forced to leave the show the following year, after making sparse appearances.
Series Champions
Filming
The majority of episodes for Gladiators, with the special series of International Gladiators, the second series of The Ashes, and the first series of Springbok Challenge, were filmed within the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, whose ITV provider is Central; the show itself was made by LWT. For the first series of The Ashes and The Springbok Challenge II series, both were filmed at locations in Australia and South Africa, respectively.Controversies
Despite the show's popularity, Gladiators faced a number of controversies during its broadcast:- In 1992, Nikki Diamond complained to John Anderson that a contender had cheated during the first run of the "Wall" event. Nicola Bawden, who she was tasked with impeding in the event, was found to have greased her legs before it began; she herself later admitted to this when questioned. Although he allowed Bawden to proceed further in that year's competition, Anderson ruled her actions were not in the spirit of competition and later had new rules implemented to prevent any other contestants for using the same tactic.
- In 1993, the series director Nigel Lythgoe was heavily criticised for firing Sandy Young, Kimbra LeAnne Standish, and Aleks Georgijev following the Wembley live shows. The decision was made following a magazine poll with the show's fans, which revealed all three Gladiators had received a poor reception during their time on the show, at that point being only the first series. The decision drew harsh criticism from TV critics, who deemed their dismissal as unfair.
- In 1994, a newspaper investigation uncovered rumours that Jefferson King was taking steroids while participating in the show. Production staff later confronted him over the allegations, which he confirmed were true. After testing positive for steroids, he was fired from Gladiators.
- In 1997, Michael Ahearne became implicated in a plot to foil the prosecution of Philip Glennon Jnr, who was being tried at the time for a serious firearm offence in 1996. The revelation caused a media scandal, forcing production staff to fire him for his involvement in disrupting Glennon's trial.