Correct.
UK Gladiators - 2024 reboot
- Thread starter Pawnless Endgame
- Start date
Caporegime
- Joined
- 9 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 57,912
- Location
- Surrey
I think the problem with wall is that either the Gladiators are being told not to (or are afraid to) really go for them. Several times they seem to catch up and awkwardly try and hold an ankle rather than really grabbing them.
Also a natural tendency from the contestants to boot them in the face too
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,439
Really I think the presenters ought to be vaguely sport-y people in some way... as otherwise practically every single "joke" is some variation of "I am lazy/unfit lol"
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 12,959
- Location
- Sunny Stafford
My bad about the Pyramid. Injuries didn't spring to my mind about that event as I seemed to remember (or mis-remembered?) that Powerball had the most injuries for an event.
I have back when I was a wee lad, it was an 8+ hour shoot if I remember correctly.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 9 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 57,912
- Location
- Surrey
Is it just one episode they shoot in a session or do they do multiple episodes?
I'm interested in this.
I've speculated with my kids that they would film all the first round events together: so do all the, for example, Gauntlet heats in one session before then setting up and filming the next event. Probably do the whole first round over 2, 3, 4 days.
Then reconvene for the quarter finals a couple of weeks later.
Last edited:
Just the one episode.
I seem to remember the eliminator apparatus (and cameras etc.) took a good hour to set up. There was some other stuff going on between events,
It was filmed in the order you watch it so you get to see a set of events and the eliminator for the 4 people in that episode.
The 4 people competing got so many tickets and occupied 4 areas at the front where they could catch reactions etc. When we were there one of the contenders family got caught up on a crash on the M6 and were very late. A bunch of randoms went and filled out there area of the crowd so when they did the TV shots it looked like they had a full compliment of supporters.
That would have made a lot of sense logistically but there aren't enough gladiators so I guess fatigue would set it for the later contestants
You don't pay for tickets to be in the audience for TV (or radio) shows, they're all free and allocated by a draw.
Maybe they've got one of those really expensive doughnut stands :-D
It also gives the contestants too much time to recover between events.
There is a cumulative fatigue aspect to the events and you can see it in the eliminator, they are definitely not as spritely as they were at event one. Some of them gas really quickly if they don’t have the stamina to go all day.
Last edited:
Still, given some of the gladiators (looking at you viper) are told to throw events for some drama it's not exactly the pinnacle of competitive fairness.
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 May 2004
- Posts
- 4,428
- Location
- Northern Ireland
I came across this retrospective of the original UK series of Gladiators.
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 10,317
- Location
- Stoke
This.
As a kid, I went to Birmingham to see the original one filmed as part of a school trip/scout outing (can't remember which) - it was good to see the events and wave the big glove in the air but actually looking back it was a stupidly long day out. Invariably you'd wait between 30 mins to 1hr between each event for the equipment to be rigged/set up then the TV gear would be set up afterwards before the event could begin. The event itself lasted the time you see on the TV and then you'd wait again for it all to be put away and for them to set up the next bit. They did organise for the Gladiators and presenters to come around and wave and entertain during the changeovers but it was fairly minimal so all in all a lot of waiting about.
Last edited:
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 12,959
- Location
- Sunny Stafford
That was a great watch, so thanks for the link
I remembered that American Gladiators pre-dated ours by a few years but didn't realise that the original idea went further back to the early 80s. Being a 90s child, I'm biased in that 90s was the best decade for TV so will have to agree with the YouTube presenter there
I paid attention to how the camera angles and placements worked back then vs now in this video and also the types of lighting used (no LEDs back then).When John Fashanu chanted his word *awooga* (I think?), it sounded to me like he was saying OVER!!
It was interesting seeing all of the Gladiator names announced over the 8 seasons. I remembered the original 12 from 1992 off by heart, then semi-remembered the ones from 1993 to 1996, but I don't remember any of the names from 1997 onwards. I then twigged that I had a Saturday job at my local newsagents in 1997 and then I was at uni from 1998. So it meant that I never saw the last 3 series. It's the same reason why I wasn't aware of the later events - Dogfight, Tightrope, Catapult and Vertigo. Didn't realise that the Gladiators had new costumes later on either.
Flame, Phoenix and Hawk left after 1992 but I never knew why, so this video gave me some insight about "Nasty Nigel". A shame, as Phoenix was my favourite Gladiator.
