Gladiators was a staple of Saturday night TV schedules back in the 1990s, and now it’s making a return to BBC One with hosts Bradley and Barney Walsh, who will be joined by a whole new cast.
The game show made its debut on ITV back in 1992 and ran for eight seasons, with Ulrika Jonsson serving as host, joined by John Fashanu and later by Jeremy Guscott.
Ahead of the reboot, Gladiators legend Jet has revealed the show’s producers banned the cast from fooling around over injury fears.
The 90s icon admitted it was not uncommon for both contenders and contestants to obtain injuries during the trials.
The 53-year-old, whose real name is Diane Youdale, was trained as a choreographer before joining Gladiators at the age of 22.
Sadly, she had to leave the popular show four years before its conclusion in 1996, after suffering a neck injury on set.
During a recent interview with Ice36.co.uk, Diane reflected on the time co-star Michael Van Wijk, who was Wolf on the show, messed around on the obstacle course and hurt himself, leading producers to bar them from messing around for fear of injury.
She explained: “Michael Van Wijk (Wolf) was lovely. He was the oldest gladiator and off the camera he was a lot of fun.
“I can remember once when we were sitting around between events and he decided to come down the Pyramid on his bum, well when he got to the bottom he sat there and went, ‘Oh! My back!’.”
Diane added: “He had compressed a disk from fooling around.
“After that, apart from when we were training up on the events, we were virtually barred from using them, particularly the Eliminator.
“The producers were really worried we were going to get injured!.”
After Diane was forced to leave the show in 1996 she later trained to be a fitness instructor and psychotherapist.
Gladiators first debuted on ITV in 1992 and ran until 2000 before it was briefly rebooted by Sky One in 2008.
The programme saw four contestants – two male and two female – compete in a series of physical events against the show’s Gladiators.
The contestants would aim to secure a place in the grand final and be crowned champion for their respective series.
The new series of Gladiators is set to return to BBC One later this year.
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