[Gary Baldy]

I fear that the original had so much right that it'll be far too easy to mess this revival up. Granted, I'm talking from a position of deep nostalgia, but there was a solid balance of genuine competition and fun, pantomime elements. The Sky revival had this awful mix of serious characters with no personality, a totally forgettable theme tune that could've easily been lifted from an HBO drama, all topped off with Britney Spears playing whenever the contenders fell into the giant swimming pool.

Am I right in saying the Sky version was heavily based on the American revival that was going at the same time? I know LWT wanted to turn everything up to 11 when they adapted the original American Gladiators, so I'm just hoping the decision makers take more cues from "our" version than any of the others.

The problem I have is that Gladiators has always felt very ITV- the BBC is the wrong home for it, and C4 and C5 would be awful fits. It really would’ve benefitted ITV to replace Ninja Warrior with Gladiators… have it as a lead-in to BGT.

I hope Challenge get more original Gladiators soon. I