Gladiators, ready!

The return of Gladiators to our TV screens reminds me that 33 years ago I interviewed one of the original hosts.

Not Ulrika Jonsson, but Wimbledon footballer John Fashanu.

First broadcast in October 1992, Gladiators was a TV phenomenon, initially at least, until the novelty wore off and falling ratings led to its cancellation in 1999.

Fashanu, an FA Cup winner in 1988, was still playing and had no TV experience before he was chosen to present the programme alongside Jonsson, a former breakfast TV weather girl.

From 1990 to 1992 I edited a monthly magazine for chartered accountants and one of the first things I did was introduce a feature called ‘Money Talks’ that featured well-known people talking about, er, money.

Subjects included Norris McWhirter (Guinness Book of Records), Gyles Brandreth, inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, chef Anton Mossiman, Labour MP Dennis Skinner, and ‘Low Life’ journalist Jeffrey Bernard.

(I’m not sure if I’ve ever written about my two meetings with Bernard, almost a decade apart but virtually identical in that we met at the Coach and Horses pub in Soho at 11.00am and I watched as he got progressively tetchier under the influence of alcohol, much of it provided free by admirers who wanted a minute or two of his time.)

Fashanu seemed an interesting case study for ‘Money Talks’ because, while he was famously physical and intimidating as a player, he was also a budding businessman.

If I remember, he was managing a number of properties for wealthy clients. We met in one property, a flat very close to Marble Arch, and he drove me to another, a mansion in The Bishops Avenue just north of Hampstead Heath.

(I’m not sure when the definite article was added. Perhaps it was always there but I’ve always known it as plain Bishops Avenue.)

The Bishops Avenue is said to be home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, but I don’t remember much about the house because I don’t think we were there very long. (Fashanu was on a tight schedule and most of the interview took place in the car.)

What I do remember is how well spoken and easy to speak to he was. Put it this way, I didn't have to prise information out of him, although he was professional and discreet about his clients.

As a football fan and Chelsea supporter I was probably more interested in talking about football and there were one or two stories that, sadly, I couldn't use in the published article.

Anyway, I was impressed. Although he drove a large, luxury car, and took me to a property in one of the world’s richest streets, he seemed down-to-earth and level-headed, confident but not arrogant.

Sadly, like many interviews I did at that time, I don’t have a record of it because I don’t have a complete set of back copies which is annoying because my memory is terrible and getting worse!

So you’ll just have to believe me when I say, I really did interview the original presenter of one of the biggest TV shows of the Nineties (and an FA Cup winner to boot).