Facing the new-look Gladiators

"Contender... ready! Gladiator... ready!" These words first boomed out of our TV sets back in 1992 and now, 16 years on, Gladiators has been revamped for the noughties.

Twelve new Gladiators are squaring up to take on 32 brave contenders, who will battle it out for a £50,000 prize when the show starts on Sky One.

Kirsty Gallacher and Ian Wright have taken up the baton of hosting duties from John Fashanu and Ulrika Jonsson, whilst the original referee John Anderson is back to make sure everyone plays by the rules.

"It's a new era, isn't it?" says Kirsty, 32. "And it's evolved. The old Gladiators was brilliant, so it didn't need bettering at all, but now we've got a new bunch of Gladiators and contenders and the games have been modernised.

"We've still got the classic Duel, The Gauntlet and The Eliminator but we've got a new game called Earthquake, which is going to be fantastic, a real spectacle, so we've got the same sort of games but we've just tweaked them, made them much more scary, and the whole show is fresher."

The original Gladiators ran for an epic eight years on ITV1 and made household names of Wolf, Jet, Saracen, Lightning and co. The new series features another pack of unstoppable warriors with names like Battleaxe, Destroyer and Oblivion.

"You got to look out for Tornado, Predator, Tempest and Panther. They're going to be hard to beat man!" says former premiership footballer Ian, 44.

"They're very pumped up, very fit, awesomely focused and determined to do well, because they are going to be role models for young kids watching."

So would he pit himself against the Gladiatorial might?

"No way! Not even the smaller Gladiators. They are so fit and so strong and so agile, it's just unbelievable. How do people get so fit?"

Unlike the nightly Saturday shows of the 90s, the new Gladiators will pack a more intense punch with 18 shows squeezed into just three weeks.

Besides making friends with the new team of Gladiators, Kirsty says she's really looking forward to working with Ian.

"He's really good because he's a real showman and he's obviously quite used to whipping the crowd up, he's used to his events as a sportsman.

"I'm a bit more of a straight man as a presenter but I think we work well together. He's quite the joker and I'm a bit more serious about things."

Back in the 90s, John Fashanu was known for his, some may say foolish, habit of provoking Wolf. Will Ian be taunting any of this year's Gladiator stars?

"If that's going to happen it will happen naturally, because if you try to force relationships, it gets a bit false. The show stands up on its own, so you don't need to over-egg the pudding."

In 2005 Kirsty won the gold medal in Channel 4's reality TV series The Games, but she says she wouldn't stand a chance on any of the Gladiators' tasks.

"I'm not as fit as I was then, that's for sure. Some of the games I wouldn't want to try because they're just too scary."

When asked what her own "Gladiator name" would be, Kirsty admits: "Because I go at a hundred miles an hour being a mum and working and I'm quite an energetic person, the name that came to mind is Livewire."

And Ian? "Volcano, because I can erupt at any time!" he says laughing. "There's lava bubbling up in me and I'm constantly keeping it under wraps."

:: Gladiators starts on Sky One on Sunday May 11.