They were the camp, bouffant-haired, gym-honed stars of the Colosseum of the communication age. For just under a decade, Wolf, Jet, Shadow and friends did battle with those plucky, pasty contenders, the Davids who thought they could beat the permatanned Goliaths, and millions of us loved it.

At the height of Gladiators’ popularity, 14m were tuning in. Being a Gladiator meant a good living, with motivational speaking, product endorsements, mentoring programmes for kids and, of course, pantomime. Then things went wrong. By the time the final special was screened on the first day of the new millennium, there was a stream of tabloid exposés: steroid scandals, bankruptcy, hooky business deals, theft, cocaine use and the inevitable four-in-a-bed orgies.

Now the Gladiators are back, only this time with less farce and more seriously empowered athletes, all committed to demonstrating just how far they can push the limits of human endurance. Don’t panic, though: the new Gladiators haven’t gone all politically correct. The tans are even deeper, the sets are all fire-belching cannons and buckets of rhinestones, and the costume department is dripping in kitsch. The wardrobe mistress, Venetia Ercolani, tells me that the odd smell in the department is not blood, sweat and tears, but “large quantities of rhinestone glue. The previous look was LA volleyball player; now it’s glamour with a hard edge. I want to make them as sexy as possible”.

I can’t help thinking, looking at the costume for Ice, that it must be weird for a 27-year-old woman previously known for being a heptathlete and World Championship bobsleigher called Caroline Pearce, to have to compete in a twinkling uplift bra.

She will, however, be competing with a stable of newly created superheroes with impressive CVs. Stars of the new Gladiators include Spartan (Roderick Bradley, 24), a handsome, 6ft 3in amateur football player, and Inferno (Jemma Palmer, 24), who boasts silicone charms and a combustible mane of flame-red hair. The women are particularly impressive – five of the six are national- or Olympic-standard athletes.

I’m tucked away in a corner, watching several male and female Gladiators, all remarkably gifted athletes – such as Predator (Du’aine Ladejo, 36), a 400-metre runner who has won medals at two Olympics – getting their hair and make-up done. Isn’t this like dressing up monkeys for PG Tips ads, a bit of a blow to their dignity, I ask.

Enigma (Jenny Pacey, 25) – an international pentathlete, stuntwoman and friend of Prince Albert of Monaco – disagrees. She says: “I compete in a crop top and knicker shorts, and these hot pants aren’t much different. A gladiator needs to be a confident, adaptable athlete and a bit of a show-off.”

Talking later in the green room (rider: cereal, sports drinks, energy bars and skimmed milk), Enigma mentions that people think she looks like Victoria Beckham, and jokes that she would duel (the game with the giant cotton buds) VB for a Hermès handbag and a pair of Louboutins.

The idea is beyond ludicrous. I imagine VB sitting next to Enigma – a sickly, skeletal version of this genuinely Amazonian 5ft 11in specimen of magnificent womanhood. I wonder if Enigma thinks VB is a good role model for young girls? She is already a regular on the schools circuit, bigging up the benefits of sport and healthy living to young girls starved of wholesome women to emulate in the popular media. “We need more female role models who are strong, healthy and intelligent,” she says.

Panther (Kara Nwidobie, 27), is a former discus thrower for Great Britain. She has a beautiful face and an extraordinary body. Her thighs are big and strong. “These thighs were made to be big,” she says. “But my genetics are only half of it. The rest I did myself.”

In a world where every woman seems to want to shrink, Panther is fantastic in every sense of the word. Ian Wright, one of the show’s presenters, looks at her making mincemeat of the competitor and says to the assembled production crew: “Wow – if there was an island of Amazonian women, she’d be on it. She’d be queen. She’s amazing.”

A sentiment echoed by Atlas (aka Sam Bond, 24), one of the hottest male gladiators, who, when asked which of the female gladiators he found most attractive, says: “Panther is beautiful. She’s perfection: well-developed musculature, lean but not too shredded. She’s still curvy and feminine. But they’re all phenomenal athletes, and female athletes deserve, but rarely get, more respect than men. Women have less of the hormone testosterone, which is the single most important agent for fitness. In terms of overall achievement, female athletes are the greater.”

Ice grew up admiring Denise Lewis, the gold-medal winner at the Sydney Olympics. “My role models are women whose bodies served a function, rather than being all about appearance,” she says. “The women I find attractive look active, strong and as if they are having fun.”

Outside, the audience is lining up; here in their coachloads from all over Britain to watch the five-hour filming, they occasionally burst into supporters’ chants for the contenders or start poking their giant foam fingers in the air. After the reality-TV orgy in recent years, this represents a return to innocent, high-moral-fibre telly. You’ve got to wonder, however, whether British audiences will embrace it after years of gorging on the unsavoury pratfalls of Jade Goody and her ilk.

The new series of Gladiators starts today at 6pm on Sky One and Sky HD

Editor's choice

• Desperados with avocados - a sort of Guy Ritchie film
• Live fast, die young: The 27 Club
• Madonna's 50 most memorable moments