The battle of Britain

Sky One is due to finish filming the new series of Gladiators at Shepperton Studios today, ready for its launch on Sunday. But Monkey hears that the show was very nearly not filmed in the UK at all. A source reveals that Sky One controller Richard Woolfe originally looked at filming the show on the set of NBC's American version for cost reasons, but soon realised it would not be much cheaper. So viewers tuning in this weekend will still be able to see gangs of British youths waggling foam hands at muscle-bound men in spandex. Thank goodness.