Be Excellent To Each Other

So did anyone watch this on Sky this evening? I have to admit to liking it a fair bit, even though there's no equivalent to Jet on the new show

Is Wolf in it?

No New "baddie" is Oblivion.

Not interested, then. Wolf were great, he were.

Grr, etc..

Great subtitle by the way, Dimrill.

I recall watching the original Gladiators, and am intrigued by whether they have updated it by arming the contestants with various semi-lethal weaponry. As I do not have a TV though, I cannot watch this.

My GCSEs had just finished around Euro '96 time, and I managed to pick up a job on the Capital Radio roadshow whilst they had a rig at Wembley, in King Edwards Park.

During set up for the first show I was on my way through the park, a bit nervous and so with a friend for moral support when a short black guy with blue eyes, wider than he was tall, came bounding up to us. Used to being harassed in parks we started taking a detour from our usual path, but he followed, shouting 'excuse me, girls, would you like a picture?" We said no, thanks, and walked off. He shouted 'I've got loads, I'll sign one for you, what are your names?'. We said, no, please leave us alone and walked briskly to where the rig was setting up where I said goodbye to my friend.

About half an hour later, after I had been briefed, I had a wander around the set-up and walked into the special guest tent, where there was going to be a celebrity or two signing pictures.

There was the crazy guy we had met earlier in full Gladiator garb as 'Rhino'. Whoops.

There was a different gladiator each day of the tournament. Wolf was the most charming and took lots of time to greet people. One of the blond guys - 'Cobra' I think his name was, was a complete arse, and the dark-haired girl that a lot of the kids at school fancied (I think 'Jet?') just sulked like a complete idiot the whole two hours she was there and refused to write anything on the pictures to the kids, just handed out pre-signed ones with a sulky face.

There was a "where are they now" type documentary on the previous week to detail the lives of the old gladiators. Wolf now lives in New Zealand where he does bit parts in TV shows. Strangely, they're using Saracen as the face of the Wii sponsorship ads for this new series

Wolf > Oblivion
Wrighty > Fash
Gallagher > Johnson
Ref > Same

To be fair, she used to work at the local sports centre at the time of the show and probably got grief off of kids on a daily basis.

Let us remember Wolf in his younger days:

I was watching some old Fraggles VHS cassettes that I taped off the tellybox when I was little, and there was part of a film stuck on the end of one of the tapes, and Wolf was in a Pepperami advert.

Not really an excuse - she chose a career on telly, she shouldn't treat her fans like dirt - she was at a paid event, after all - it's not like they were harassing her in the street, she was there specifically to meet the people that came to see her.

When I win the lottery I'm getting plastic surgery to look like a Doozer.

I love doozers - I have a few little wind-up doozers in my flat. I hope you'll be one of the ones with a moustache.

If you get the plastic surgery done I'll buy you a hard-hat and a tool belt. You'll have ti supply your own boots, though.

I used to go to a gym that Wolf ran in South London. I have told this story before.

Yes, and it was fucking boring then.

I saw a little bit of the old series being repeated on Bravo or some channel saturday morning. It was quite good fun at the time, but it did get tiresome after a while, and I expect much the same of the newer ones. I saw a bit of the new one at the in-law's house, it seemed much the same with ZOMG WATER TEH FALL IN!

Looking back, I'm not sure if I liked Lightning more than Jet. They both had their charms

Nightshade eh? Phwoar.

Jet was the win.

Very much so. Do a google image search to find some RATHER RUM early flap shots of her. Not that I've done this, natch. *looks innocent* Oh, her name's Diane Youdale btw.

Celebrity in being arsehole shocker. Next week we'll be revealing that Jon Pertwee was a grumpy old sod who was in it for the money.

Lightning had brilliantly 80s hair, looking back. I still well fancied her as a young'un though.

I know someone who used to work for the guy who wrote the Gladiators theme. Apparently he used to like to drive a pony and trap through his local town centre on the way to the shops.

And here's the theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KMuMlZiwuE&feature=related

His name is Muff Murfin by the way. Fantastic name.

According to her website (Hosted and Designed by Give the Dog a Bone Ltd) she is a full on NLP-teacheroo!
I bet she's as tricksy as that Darren Brown man.

Derrin. That's how tricky he is - it's Derrin.

It's Derren you twonk.

Can we just agree that he has a terrible name? Derren or Derrin or Darren, they're all as bad.

The old gladiators seemed to forever be in West Bromwich opening some shortlived cheap tat emporium or other such grotty establishment. Whether this was due to close proximity to Birmingham and the NIA or the fact they did this everywhere I'm not sure.

I never actually met them because at the time I was firmly of the belief that I was far too intellectual for such light entertainment. However, this is not what pains me. Not meeting Jim Bowen when he opened Martin Raymond (which later became a poundstretcher. Then closed. Then became a fucking Crazy George's which then became FUCKING BRIGHTHOUSE YOU ....sorry) is what pains me.

Sorry....I think there are some deep rooted disappointment/regret issues coming to the surface there.....

I used to work at Fountain Studios. Not everyone was an arsehole because they were celebrity - in fact, most people were extraordinarily nice to the people that wanted to meet them. She stood out as being someone who was not very nice at all among the people that I met.

new series started today and they've somehow run out of names so we've got Siren and Warrior again!

I thought it was worth watching just for Siren actually!

They're still thumbed on image search, but the original page and proper images have since been taken down.

I hate you, The Internet.

I used to work for him too, well, his wife. He was far more cheery than she. And he never sacked me, unlike her.

Yeah but if you search sites rather than images you'll still find them (or if you check your PM box)

Ooh! New series, cool. Did anyone get the DVD they advertised? Saw one in HMV, but it looked like a two-hour promo piece.

Was it my imagination or did I hear that Wolf's back doing it again?

They've just cancelled the US version. Again.

He 'retired', but then was talked into joining the villains as their coach, or something. I caught the end of what I assume was the last episode of a series over christmas. It was kind of entertaining, though without the old gladiators music it is forever hampered.

Shouty scotch man's gone too, hasn't he?

Yes, and now they have two Travelators in the Eliminator, though given that last series at least 25% of the contestants struggled massively with the Travelator, I can only assume we have some four-hour episodes coming up.

The new US show was only a hit because it was aired during the writers' strike. Writers come back, so do actual hit shows like Lost and Ugly Betty. Suddenly yer captive market doth diminish.

Charlie Brooker named the Gladiators superbly.

They're very obviously on variable speeds though, so they can lower them if nobody is going to make it.

The man who wrote the original Gladiators theme is called Muff Murfin. He owns a load of radio stations near the Welsh border. Also wrote a load of other TV themes. One of my university lecturers worked for him years and years ago.

Also one of them is on a horizontal for the new series, which makes it basically a 5-second waste of time.

Please tell me that they at least replaced the ridiculous cotton bud things.

They replaced them with razor-sharp flails.

Yes that is right..

Did any one ever watch the amircan one... they had ropes on the travelator so they could pull themselves up

Yes.