Gladiators fans hailed its return to TV on the BBC – but many claimed Mark Clattenburg struggled to fill the shoes of legendary referee John Anderson.
The show was watched by more than six million people on Saturday night, with former English Premier League official Clattenburg taking centre stage as the man in the middle.
But viewers were quick to compare him to the former Fife resident, famed for his “Contenders ready! Gladiators ready!” catchphrase.
John – now 92 and based in Leicestershire – was the ref on the original series from 1992 to 2000 and also appeared in Sky One’s reboot of the programme in 2008.
‘Scaring s*** out of everyone’
@GIBBY316 wrote on X: “I only have one problem with the new Gladiators TV show – it’s missing John Anderson’s Scottish twang.”
@victoriaannette said: “Loving the reboot! Would love to see John Anderson make a wee appearance.
“Hear his voice every time the ref speaks.”
@Pleyndamour added: “It just isn’t the same without John Anderson as referee.”
@David_Strathdee wrote: “New #Gladiators was brilliant, felt just like the original.
“Missing John Anderson as the referee though – it wasn’t quite the same without a bellowing Glaswegian accent scaring the s*** out of everyone involved.”
‘Why the accent?’
Others accused Durham-born Clattenburg, 48, of putting on a Scottish accent.
@StephenLightley wrote: “I’m howling at Clattenburg on Gladiators. Why’s he’s adopted a semi-Scottish accent to shout ‘Gladiators reeeeady’?”
@redmanc07 added: “So is Mark Clattenburg putting on a Scottish accent to mimic the original legendary John Anderson?”
Before finding TV fame, John was a top athletics coach, leading Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and guiding Liz McColgan to Olympic silver in 1988.
The pair later fell out when Liz dropped him.
A £75,000 legal action against the Dundee hero brought by Anderson was settled out of court in 1992.
Leaving Fife
The Glasgow-born coach, who had also worked as a PE teacher, lived in Pitreavie, Dunfermline, for many years.
He sold his £220,000 home in the late 90s and moved south of the border to be nearer wife Dorothy’s family.
In 2016, he told The Herald: “I was walking the dog last June and felt a slightly odd sensation in my right chest.
“After 10 days – still on the bike and in the gym, walking the dog and mowing the lawn – my wife, Dorothy, insisted I see the doctor.
“They said I’d had a heart attack. They stuck some stents and I am fine. I am too ugly to die.”
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