Hunter from Gladiators aka James Crossley

If you grew up in Britain in the 90s, Saturday night meant one thing: Gladiators. And today's guest didn't just enter the arena — he owned it.James Crossley became HUNTER at just 19, the youngest gladiator on the show, and stayed for all eight years of the ITV original. In this episode he tells Simon what the cameras never showed: the producer who told him he was rubbish after year one, the note pushed under his hotel door each night telling him which 50ft event he'd be doing, the game that broke a gladiator's neck, the fake tan that got them banned by the hotel, and the press office that was leaking the stories it was supposed to protect them from.And then there's everything after the arena: touring America with the Royal Shakespeare Company, winning Britain's Strongest Master at 40, breaking the Dinnie Stones grip world record in 2018 (with a little help from a psychic), and the injury that ended it all — leading him somewhere nobody would predict: gong baths, sound healing, and the London Handpan Academy.Oh — and Simon challenges him to a duel. It goes about as well as you'd expect.