'I greased up my legs to try to beat Gladiators'

A dance teacher found herself sliding into controversy in 1992 when she appeared in the first ever televised episode of Gladiators.

"We'd been given a rule book of things we should and shouldn't do," said Nicola Bawden, from Poole, who still teaches dance 34 years later.

Reminiscing about her time on the original series of the show, she said contestants had "very little practice" on the equipment because it was still being built around them.

She said: "I noticed that one of the tactics of the gladiators going up the wall was to grab the contestants' legs and then yank them off the wall, so I thought 'right, I'm going to put something oily on my legs'."

The wall is best described as a sheer, intimidating test of speed, strength and nerve. It is part rock face, part race against a human obstacle.

Contenders have to climb a 33ft (10m) high wall, chased - after seven seconds for the men and 10 seconds for the women - by the gladiators who try to prevent them from reaching the top.

Bawden said: "I put some baby oil on my legs so I thought as they grab my legs they wont be able to grip, they'll slide down."

She took things a step further, she said, by undoing her shoe laces so that her trainer would come off when chasing gladiator Scorpio attempted to grab it.

Scorpio, played by former gymnast Nikki Diamond, aired an "official complaint" on the show saying: "In my opinion, she cheated and acted unsporting."

But she caught Bawden on the same event in the next round, meaning the contestant crashed out of the show.

Gladiators first aired on ITV on 10 October 1992, hosted by Ulrika Jonsson and former footballer John Fashanu.

It ran for eight series, making gladiators including Wolf, Jet, and Rhino household names in the 1990s.

The show had a brief stint on Sky in the 2000s before being revived by the BBC in 2024, where it is currently celebrating its third series.

Looking back on her time on the show with fond memories, Bawden said: "A lot of the parents of kids that I teach now watched it when they were younger.

"I think they still look at this old woman wandering around the dance studio and think 'really, on Gladiators? Nah, it can't be true'.

"Then they watch it on YouTube and see that it was true."

The next episode of the latest series of Gladiators will be on BBC One and BBC iplayer from 17:45 GMT.

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