Do you feel the power of the Gladiators? Can you face the challenge of the champions? Do you have the courage of a hero? Do you have the will and the skill? Do you have the speed, the strength, the heart to be a winner? Are you a Gladiator? These are the important questions that BBC will be asking in 2023.
For those of us of a certain age, Saturday night entertainment peaked in the 90s with the popular tv programme Gladiators, and it's never got better since.
Contestants would line up to take on the Gladiators at a number of physically demanding challenges, from trying to hold on to a giant pendulum dangling from the roof of an arena tp trying to race up a pyramid whilst an imposing god of a human tries to knock you down it to running up the infamous Travelator!
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Oh we wept when the likes of Wolf, Saracen, Shadow, Jet, Lightning, Scorpio et al disappeared from our screens when the show ended in 2000, not forgetting the brilliant presenting by Ulrika Johnson and John Fashanu.
The show reappeared eight years later on Sky and ran for two years but it failed to capture the imaginations of the nation in the same way, despite Ian Wright being one of the presenters.
Now the BBC are bringing it back for a whole new generation, with the show to be shown on BBC 1 and iPlayer after being recorded next year.
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Gladiators is back and a whole new generation of viewers can now look forward to watching a Saturday night spectacle like no other. Will the contenders have the will and the skill to succeed against our mighty new Gladiators? You’ll have to tune in to find out," Kate Phillips, Director of Unscripted at the BBC said of the show's return.
Dan Baldwin the managing director of production company Hungry Bear added, "It’s the perfect time for Gladiators to return. What other show combines electric excitement, superheroes, giant sponge fingers, elite athletes, and a pinch of pantomime?
"Watch out for the new breed of superhuman, supersized, superstars bursting on to your screens."
No dates have been confirmed for the filming but it will take place at the Utilita Arena Sheffield, and we really can't wait to see what they bring back and what's new from the original series.
Ryan Sidle