"These are very good tickets. You're in the camera block, near the red contestant's friends and family. So there's something I need to know. If the camera is on you, are you going to duck and hide and get all embarrassed? Or are you going to go absolutely flipping mental? I've been up until the early hours painting portraits of my favourite Gladiators with the precise hope of making it on to the telly."
"That was when Gladiators muscled its way into the Saturday night viewing schedule of every kid in Britain, a copy of an American gameshow that pitted superhuman bodybuilders with silly names against fitness enthusiasts with ordinary jobs. You'd have Saracen using a pugil stick to batter Colin, a painter and decorator from Runcorn; or Lightning chasing Suzie, a dinner lady from Woking, up a climbing wall. It was an immediate playground sensation, spawning catchphrases that are etched indelibly on the memory of every 90s kid."
A fan receives tickets in the camera block and eagerly expects to behave wildly on camera after painting portraits of favourite Gladiators. Gladiators arrived in 1992 and dominated Saturday-night viewing, adapting an American gameshow format that matched superhuman bodybuilders with ordinary contestants. The show featured named athletes like Saracen, Lightning, Jet, Hunter and Wolf, staging events such as pugil-stick bouts and climbing races. The programme generated playground culture, catchphrases and imitation in PE. Fans displayed posters and reciprocal crushes, and the villainous Wolf provoked theatrical reactions and occasional yellow cards. The show remained family-friendly and widely imitated by children.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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