'Gladiators': Tube Talk Gold

Contenders, are you ready? Yes, that's right - this week on Tube Talk Gold we're off to the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham with our ridiculous foam fingers and our "We Love Lightning" posters to celebrate that little game show we used to call Gladiators. In its heyday, Gladiators was pure Saturday night entertainment, but why?

Gladiators: Originally broadcast from October 10, 1992 to January 1, 2000

Back in the day, Gladiators was the show that families gathered round the television to watch together on a Saturday night. Who doesn't want to see jaw-droppingly muscly men and women wearing ridiculously small, neon lycra leotards chase unbelievably fit members of the public up walls before beating them with oversized plastic sticks?

After all, let's not pretend Gladiators was some kind of work of intellectual genius. No, it was just perfect entertainment - a show to watch with friends and family, a drink, and some kind of savoury snack. Honestly, you felt healthier just watching it, so the popcorn and crisps were easily excusable.

The producers of Gladiators did many things right, but one of their best moves was to film the show in an arena filled with a rowdy crowd. Way before Davina McCall was telling terrified Big Brother evictees that "it's all a pantomime", up in Birmingham they were coming in their droves to wave their bizarre foam fingers and homemade posters, cheer and boo, and get involved with the show's bizarre traditions (a blast of 'Another One Bites The Dust', anyone?) That is atmosphere.



The other thing that really made Gladiators special was the fact that all the professional contenders were given proper characters. It's a testament to the show that when you go on the Gladiators IMDB page it's genuinely surprising to realise that Lightning, Saracen, Jet et al actually have real names (and it's heartbreaking, so don't do it - forget I told you).

Giving them particular poses and titles and supposed backstories made them almost like cartoon figures, but that was great, because you could have heroes and villains and it became much more of a game. Maybe Strictly Come Dancing would be more enjoyable if Anton du Beke, say, became Twinkletoes.

Everyone had their favourite Gladiator (mine had to be Lightning - that hair!) but we all shared one villain. Oh yes - enter Wolf. With his greasy mullet and grumpy demeanour, everyone knew that Wolf was the one to boo, and when he lost (as he did almost all the time) it felt like justice had been done. Of course, looking back Wolf was more obviously scripted than The Only Way Is Essex, but it was still a lot of fun.



Actually, the contenders weren't really the point of the show, although you'd always root for them to win. Instead, it was about the games and the Gladiators, and the hosts were good too (hurrah for Ulrika Jonsson and John Fashanu!) When I was watching Gladiators, I was really too young to know about all the scandals - Ulrika's dating Hunter! Shadow's done steroids! Warrior's been linked to a firearms offence! - but they must have added buzz around the show. And Gladiators thrived on buzz - at the time, it was a tabloid writer's dream.

Oh, and at this point, let's please take a moment to reminisce about the wonderful referee John Anderson, who always rocked his black and white stripey top, blew his whistle with grace, and inevitably made the right decision with complete seriousness even though Gladiators is totally silly.

So you've got the atmosphere and the characters, but Gladiators would have been nothing if the games weren't good. And they were great fun, mainly because they were all bonkers. Whether it was contestants clambering up a big bouncy pyramid, barging into each other in "atlaspheres" or battling their way through the dreaded Gauntlet, there was always enjoyment to be had.

Of course, some games became classics - 'Hang Tough', 'Duel', 'The Wall' - while others were underrated (I loved Danger Zone, where the contestants had to avoid being hit by a tennis ball, weirdly) or just a bit dull. But of course, those were all just the warm-ups to the grand climax of each episode of Gladiators - the obstacle course 'The Eliminator'. The best bit was the dreaded travellator, which foiled many a hot contender.



So Gladiators was pure Saturday night entertainment. I'd love to say that it influenced a whole generation of children to get fit and healthy, and maybe it did. But I remember drawing a picture at school saying I wanted to be a Gladiator, and I ended up sitting around all day writing about television, so I'm not sure how long the effect lasted.

But it was of its time, and the success won't be repeated - just take a look at Sky1's attempt to revive the format, which added a swimming pool for no real reason and couldn't recapture the magic at all. And even watching the original series of Gladiators on Challenge - which I totally don't do, honest - it's not quite stood the test of time (and I don't just mean the haircuts). But for a while, Saturday night entertainment meant Gladiators, and it will always have a place in our hearts.

Were you a fan of Gladiators? Leave your comments below!