New Gladiators hosts Bradley and Barney Walsh have been talking about the iconic show’s new sets in Sheffield’s Utilita Arena ahead of its return to screens on BBC One this weekend.
The return of the Saturday night 90s staple has been hotly anticipated by fans of spandex and light-hearted pugilism ever since it was first announced in the summer of 2022.
The BBC gave a first glimpse of the new Gladiators on set last May, and with the debut 11-part series of the return finally upon us, new father-and-son host team Bradley and Barney Walsh have been speaking to the BBC about the reboot, including the purpose-built Sheffield set.
“It was mesmerising,” said host senior Bradley. “The production team kept the set from us for quite some time and the day before we were going to rehearse Barney and I walked into the training session and watched people on the equipment and we thought this is this is absolutely amazing.”
Walsh senior admits that things hotted up even more once the team were out of rehearsals and a lice audience was in the cavernous space: “The audiences were amazing – just brilliant, lovely people, and I mean the atmosphere was smashing,” he said. “We had a warm-up guy (Stuart Holdham) and two DJs (Danny Mylo and Rosie Madison) from a local radio station working together keeping the audience entertained, they worked brilliantly together. It was like being at a concert rather than a TV show.”
Son Barney was equally impressed: “I didn’t expect the atmosphere to be the way it was coming out onto the stage,” he revealed. “That’s a vivid memory for me, walking out the first time, because 3,500 people is a massive number. It sounds like a massive number, but you can’t really conceptualize it until you walk out there. You’ve got everyone around you in that big round arena, all the lights going off, all the cannons, and everyone screaming and cheering, that was spectacular.”
He added: “The arena was electric, it was alive, and everyone could really feel that.”
The Walshes will be joined on screen by a new refereeing team headed up by former Premier League ref Mark Clattenburg, with commentary from one of the most recognisable voices in football – Guy Mowbray.
Gladiators was commissioned by Kate Phillips, director of unscripted. The executive producers are Dan Baldwin and Lou Brown for Hungry Bear and Dom Bird for MGM Alternative UK. The head of entertainment commissioning for the BBC is Kalpna Patel-Knight and the commissioning editor for the BBC is Clodagh O’Donoghue.
The UK series was developed by Hungry Bear Media, while the original American Gladiators series was created by Johnny C. Ferraro and Dan Carr.
Gladiators will go on the first whistle at 5.50pm on Saturday January 13, 2024 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
