​'MY GLADIATORS CAREER WAS ALMOST OVER AS IT JUST GOT STARTED': HUNTER REVEALS HOW SHOW BOSS LEFT HIM IN TEARS AFTER FAILING TO IMPRESS

Gladiators star Hunter has revealed his career on the hit prime-time Saturday night entertainment show was almost over before it began, as the show’s top brass wanted to get rid of him. Talking to the new GladPod podcast, the man known to millions as Gladiator Hunter, and to slightly smaller numbers as James Crossley, said the brush with failure motivated him to become one of the show’s star athletes.

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“I’d just got off the Atlas Sphere or The Wall, and (producer) Nigel Lythgoe, who was basically god for everybody on the show, said I was s***,” he said.

“I was mortified, I went to the dressing room and cried. This was a dream come true for somebody who always wanted to do something with their body but didn’t have the body for it,  I went back that year and trained to be a Gladiator for a year, twice a day.”

Gladiator Hunter was one of a host of characters from the show who were among the nation’s most famous celebrities throughout the 90s, and he was speaking on the GladPod podcast, hosted by Gladiator Jet, also known as Diane Youdale, and journalist David Blackmore.

To find out more about his time on the show, including his thoughts on the ever-so-slightly revealing costumes, and how Gladiator Hunter almost ended up being called something else, search and subscribe to the GladPod through your usual podcast suppliers. Or click here.