Last night saw the first episode of Sky One’s remake of Gladiators. Being a big fan of the first series I was eagerly looking forward to Sky’s offerings. So, after the first episode aired last night, what are my first impressions of the new format?

• Good to see some of the old games coming back. Powerball is an old favourite, although the baskets seemed to be bigger than they used to be allowing contestants to throw the balls in.
• Oblivion, a really poor Wolf substitute. No personality at all, apparently the show is supposed to be less camp this time around, obviously nobody has informed Oblivion, he could have been playing the camp lion in The Wizard Of Oz, awful, just awful.
• Kirsty Gallagher and Ian Wright were good, though they’ll need to develop a bit more on-screen chemistry.
• Battleaxe, is there a more aptly named Gladiator?
• The eliminator was a big disappointment. Too cramped, the cotton roller thingy was completely pointless, the travelator was too easy and jumping through the blocks at the end is a poor substitute for the rope swing though the big paper sheet. Using the pyramid instead of the cargo net is unforgivable.
• On the ‘cramped’ point The Shepperton studios are obviously far smaller than the NIA which takes away from some of the atmosphere and leads to the feeling of being cramped.
• One less event per show than the old series.

All in all not a bad start, some of the games need work and the Gladiators need to develop their personas, but it made for an entertaining show.

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