Gladiators to return for second series on BBC One

Gladiators is set to return for a second series on BBC One, with filming scheduled to take place in June.

A source told theversion.co.uk “As soon as the first new episodes aired, it was clear there was an appetite for even more! More than eight million people watched the first episode and the series has continued to be popular with fans every week”

“Details are to be confirmed but Sheffield Arena has kept three weeks in June free to film brand new episodes”.

The Version also understands that at least one celebrity special is being planned, and the BBC are even considering airing one of them on Christmas Day. Applications for contenders will be announced very soon.

Father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh will be back as hosts of the series. Gladiators has always been a huge part of the Walsh family; Donna Walsh, Barney’s mum and Bradley’s wife, was head choreographer for the Gladiator cheerleaders on the original series.

Bradley said: “My wife, Donna, was involved in the original series running the cheerleading G Force and was an associate producer on the show so I used to visit her and watch the show being made and when my son, Barney was born it was still on air, so we used to take him to watch the show. I took part in Gladiators as a celebrity years ago in 1997, I wasn’t really a celebrity back then as I only had a few jobs under my belt and think I had to fill in for someone. It was a family affair for us and so when the team at Hungry Bear spoke to us and said they were looking for a family appeal to the show and asked if we would we like to host it, and we jumped at the chance”.

Barney said: “The audiences were amazing – just brilliant, lovely people, and I mean the atmosphere was smashing. We had a warm-up guy (Stuart Holdham) and two DJs (Danny Mylo and Rosie Madison) from a local radio station working together keeping the audience entertained, they worked brilliantly together. It was like being at a concert rather than a TV show!”

The current series features new Gladiators including Bionic, Apollo, Athena, Legend and Steel. Catch up with the episodes on BBC iPlayer.

Fans can get another fix of their heroes later in the year when the Gladiators appear in a special episode of The Weakest Link.