Weaver's Week 2025-04-27

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Later, some short thoughts on Channel 5's recent Quiz Night. But we're ready.

Contents 1 Gladiators 1.1 Sally Lindsay's 70s Quiz Night 1.2 Saffron Cherry Productions and Big Circus Media for Channel 5, 19 April 2025 2 In other news 2.1 Quizzy Mondays

Gladiators

The BBC's second series ran on Saturday nights from 18 January to 12 April.

Transmissions were a bit more stop-start than might be ideal – live sport meant they missed two weeks entirely, and on three others the show was pushed from 5.50 to 7pm. Not entirely sure they can do much about this in the future – the BBC still has some rights to the men's FA Cup and rugby tournaments next year, and live sport will generally be a higher priority than Gladiators. They can't run the series in the autumn because of Strictly, and Gladiators wouldn't work in summer. Would a consistent 7pm start time (and 8pm finish) work with the very youngest viewers? Maybe, but what goes in the 6pm hour?

Last year, we noted that the Gladiators' characters were loosely defined. After two years, we're slowly getting more of a handle on most of them – Steel is tough but fair, Apollo is fit in at least two senses, Sabre can fight a little too hard, and so on. We got a much better handle on the characters from Gladiators: Epic Pranks, a series made for CBBC where each Gladiator is put into a bizarre stunt, and there are silly games backstage.

Two new Gladiators were introduced over the run. Cyclone plays in the women's division, the powerlifter is tall and difficult to get past. Her character is sassy and disruptive, probably the closest we've got to chaotic-neutral Wolf in the nineties ITV series. Hammer is tall and strong and hirsuite; beneath the surface, he seems a genuinely nice guy to be around.

One of the useful spin-offs from Gladiators is that the BBC has got a couple of dozen people who are willing to go on other shows, either in their Gladiator character or as themself. Montell Douglas, the human who plays Fire, went on Strictly Come Dancing; Matt Morsia, the human who plays Legend, did House of Games (3) and Would I Lie to You?, and various Gladiators characters have popped up across the schedules. We're slightly surprised Radio 1 hasn't invited Diamond and Dynamite to do some scratching, or Radio 2's replaced Jeremy Vine with Viper.

Two-and-a-half new events were added to the roster this year. Unleash is a sprint with some obstacles: contenders are to leap a low wall, crash through a high wall, climb up stairs one at a time, and leap from a platform to grab a large flag. Chasing them, three seconds behind, is one of the Gladiators; if the Glad can grab a tag dangling down the contestants' back, the game is over. The "one stair at a time" rule seemed needlessly fussy, the course is designed to slow the contender more than the Gladiator, and perhaps that's the point because not many points were scored.

Crash Course was another new event, played in the metal balls they call Atlaspheres. Contenders race two laps of the arena; in certain areas of the course, there are Gladiators in their own Atlasphere who will try to slow the contenders. Ten points for the first contender across the line, five for the runner-up if they finish within ten seconds. It's the only event where one of the contenders must score, and with the Gladiators given strict zones to stick to, the battle felt somewhat muted. We like the idea, it would benefit from a bit of a rethink.

Atlaspheres is the half-new event, revived for this series without many changes from the 90s version. They made some useful changes to Gauntlet, reducing the time to 20 seconds and making it less of a formality for the contenders. The maximum score on The Edge was reduced to 10 points, two per successful crossing.

The standard of refereeing left something to be desired. Some rules are fussy (one step at a time in Unleash); we'd rather have the result played out on screen and not in the ref's monitor. Some rules are prone to interpretation (the "both feet must cross the line" rule in Gauntlet leaves us asking "which bit of the line" and "did you see the contender cross the line then get dragged back?"). Some rules felt that they were inconsistently enforced across the series (similar fouls by the Gladiators on Unleash resulted in awards of 10 points and 5 points). At times, we began to wonder if the rules were being interpreted to peg back the leader, and make the contest tighter than it might otherwise have been.

When decisions are made, they're communicated with a desperate lack of grace. We hear an angry ref shouting "You deliberately jumped out", when a) it is the ref's view that the contender jumped out, the footage we've seen suggests they were more pushed; b) the contenders are here for our entertainment and it's very rude to boss them about; c) especially when you appear to be talking complete nonsense. Judges who make their decisions based on their prejudices will become a laughing stock, and will seriously affect the credibility of the institutions they're associated with. Mark Clattenburg might care to remember that nobody will ever watch Gladiators for the umpire.

The shooting schedule for this series wasn't quite as compressed as the first run, but we still saw a lot of injuries – one of the Gladiators was taken out during an event, one Eliminator was cancelled after a contestant was injured, one contender had to withdraw after winning her semi-final. There's nothing much we can do about injuries – Gladiators is a contact competition, and the regrettable fact is that folk are likely to get hurt. Back in the days of John Anderson, we knew he would bring medics over and refuse to allow people to continue if he saw a dislocation or any slight confusion after a clash of heads. We're not sure what the protocol for the current series is, and it would be nice to know.

Because one of the finalists had to withdraw through injury, we were left with a final between the seemingly-unstoppable Amanda and the pocket rocket Aneila. Amanda had been imperious through three rounds, racking up more points in one round of Powerball than both of the blokes combined. Aneila had won her heat, lost to Amanda in the quarter-finals, come back as the fastest loser, lost her semi, and again been reprieved as the fastest loser. Inevitably, Amanda won again.

The men's final was between Joe and Mus. Joe was the gymnast, fast and lithe and wriggly and superb at the Eliminator course. (We had to remember he was not Joe the Beard, his semi-final opponent.) Mus managed to build up a rivalry with Legend, defeating him on the wall three times, and at Hang Tough. Joe took a decent advantage into the final Eliminator and won it.

Gladiators continued to show a diverse culture: one contender competed in a suitably modest hijab, another show had a husband and wife competing in their own events, Fury remains an inspiration and proof that Deaf people are people. These are not cast as stunts, but serious players who had thoroughly earned their places. We are pleased that Gladiators appeals to all sections of the audience: all ages, all demographics can find something to cheer. Interesting to see the application form for ask contenders if they were "male, female, or non-binary"; are there plans for a quartet of enbies to do the show against as many Gladiators as they can include? We'll have to see.

Although Saturday night viewing figures were down compared to last year, much of the loss is attributable to a repeat on Sunday afternoons. The show brings families to the BBC, a special promotion just before the final showcased some of the junior Gladiators fans. The show's stars are a ready-made resource for other programmes. Yes, the 11-episode structure is messy, but it works tolerably well on screen, ensures the series never outstays its welcome, and that we'll see our favourite contenders - and continue the plotlines - that bit sooner.

Expect a little change for series 3, enough to keep the series fresh. Perhaps they'll turn The Wall into a Contender vs Gladiator race, like they did in the final. Perhaps they'll revive Suspension Bridge (basically Duel on the wobbly plastic bridge). Perhaps they'll get a full sit-down interview with Viper. Whatever happens, we're looking forward to it.

Sally Lindsay's 70s Quiz Night

Saffron Cherry Productions and Big Circus Media for Channel 5, 19 April 2025

Good grief, that's some shocking floral wallpaper! Sally Lindsay, the occasional host of Tenable, has a celebrity quiz. The celebrities are decent bookings: John Thomson (Cold Feet actor), Matthew Kelly (Stars In Their Eyes host), and Sally James (from Tiswas) against Shaparak "Shappi" Khorsandi (comedian), Steve Edge (from Benidorm), and cultural treasure Dame Su Pollard.

"What was the best-selling car of the 1970s?" asks Sally five minutes into the show. "Sorry, this is meant to be quick-fire," she adds after what felt like an hour of conferring. This will turn out to be the show in a nutshell: relaxed, but always with forward motion walking us to the next item.

Some of the questions are excuses to play old clips, other questions lead into bizarre clips they've found. For instance, they located footage of Derek Nimmo being turned into a punk rocker, and by "located" we mean "used a search engine" but someone had to know what they were looking for. The History Mystery Box is next: the team captains have a box, with something inside it. By touch alone, they're to describe the contents to their team-mates.

Next, it's a round on dangerous occupations and unsafe practices. Hmm, we wonder if anyone's tried to bring The Golden Shot back through Zoom or Twitch or Hackbox. Almost inevitably, there's a round on public safety films, featuring Nevar's Dad as the Demon of Dark Water, and Alvin Stardust as the Green Cross Code Man. And there's a short interlude, "was this from an adult horror film, or something aimed at children?"

Around the commercial breaks, Sally asks a question about an ancient advert from the seventies. Where did Lorraine Chase fly in from? Then a question: who sits on this sofa from a sitcom? How many departments from Are You Being Served? can the teams name? Action shows give an excuse to play clips from The Sweeney. Lots of little clips on this show.

Food questions next. What is the sauce in prawn cocktail? (Apparently, tomato sauce and mayonnaise. Yum.) What were the flavours of Angel Delight? And, from the demonstration by Fanny Cradock, what is she cooking? "Imagine doing a cooking show that puts people off food!" muses the host, while talking about Cradock's mincemeat omelette. Delia Smith gives viewers tips on how to eat spaghetti. Er, put it in your mouth, that's the usual way?

What haven't we covered? Music; the era of rock greats like Slade, ABBA, The Jam, The Wombles. What song were Boney M not allowed to perform in the USSR? "Rasputin", obviously, it's (er) far too raunchy for fine upstanding young Communists like Boris and Minka. Movies are done through "Propcorn": props and lines from famous movies of the era, all hidden from a big box of popcorn. And, of course, Look At What You Could Have Won: which of these prizes was offered on 3-2-1? And will Sale of the Century be able to sell a set of tyres for £54?

Points are awarded through the show, and they eventually declare a winner at the end. The winners get to play their own version of The Conveyor Belt from The Generation Game. They've built a Conveyor Belt in the studio? Er, no: it's all done using footage of the conveyor belt round from a real 1970s episode.

Not that anybody cares who won: Quiz Night was a show we could dip in and out of, gentle nostalgia fun with stars of the era. They've obviously inspiration from Channel 4's long-running The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, though Sally Lindsay is much more gentle and fun than Jimmy Carr; the show is warm and brings smiles.

This particular edition was made as part of a themed weekend on Channel 5, but it's clear the format could work for almost any subject. If this was a backdoor pilot, we're sure it'll be welcomed by Channel 5's viewers, though we question whether the format is strong enough to attract viewers. Maybe they'll want to schedule it away from strong shows like The 1% Club or Casualty.

In other news

Readers will doubtless remember Freya Skye, the BBC's first entry to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2022. Since winning the televote in Yerevan, Freya has gone from strength to strength – a recurring role on last year's series of The Next Step, and now signed up for the Disney movie Zombies 4. Now we're going to have to try and work out what's going on... do we know an eleven-year-old to explain the Zombies-verse to us?

Quizzy Mondays

Something of a runaway win for Nancy Braithwaite on Mastermind; she was almost perfect on Caravaggio, and backed that up with strong general knowledge. James Barrow scored well on Inside Number 9, lost more ground second time around. Good efforts from the other contenders, Gary Austin (the acting talent Grace Hopper) and Krish Hook (premier league darts).

We note that Nancy won heat 1; the runner-up in that heat, Claire Reynolds, has also earned a place in the final. Rematches in the same series are vanishingly rare on Mastermind, we believe this will be the first since Geoff Thomas and Ian Pickering in the 2003 series. There's no Mastermind for the next two Mondays, as the BBC wishes to show snooker (or a replacement programme).

An absolutely runaway win for Christ's Cambridge on University Challenge, 220-50 the final score. Brendan Bethlehem and Oscar Despard locked up the buzzers tight all night; Bristol were first on the buzzers just four times. Christ's managed a 58% bonus conversion rate, quite remarkable given the standard of questions in the semi-final; Bristol managed exactly 30%. Bristol's first defeat takes them out of the competition; it's a mighty achievement to make the semis.

It's all kicking off on Wednesday. The Genius Game (VM1 and ITV, also Thu) arrives after what seems like years in development. Glow Up (BBC3) begins its seventh series. On Thursday, Taskmaster returns (C4).

There's a new run of science show Get Set Galactic (Cbeebies, Sat and Sun). Grand final of Chess Masters Colon The Endgame (BBC2, Mon). Next Saturday has the resumption of Celebrity Bridge of Lies (BBC1) after the The East Enders special in February. Remember how we said Gladiators stars popped up across the BBC? Steel and Dynamite are on The Hit List.

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