Gladiators was the highlight of Saturday night TV for a generation of viewers through the 1990s and Jet, Middlesborough's Diane Youdale, has told fans on the newly-launched GladPod podcast that a future relaunch could be on the way.

The new podcast series, launched this week with two episodes, has been made with superfan and journalist David Blackmore and is already rocketing up UK Podcast charts.

Gladiators favourite Jet believes the hit 90s TV show could return to our screens in the near future.

Speaking on GladPod, which features interviews with fellow Gladiators, contenders and those who made the show, Diane, who was born in Middlesbrough and raised in Billingham, believes a relaunch is on the cards.

She said: “A little bird has told me that there is something on the table that looks gladiatorial and will possibly be around for our 30th year. Maybe there’ll be a version of it,”

But could Diane be persuaded to don lycra again and hang tough?

“You couldn’t pay me enough to go back and do it again, but I think the concept of having these larger-than-life superhero gladiator people is timeless. And I think that’ll always work. I wouldn’t change a thing about my time as a gladiator,” she said.

The Gladiators torch continues to burn brightly through a thriving fan community with the first series of the GladPod, already hitting the top of the UK podcast charts and also rising through the ranks in Ireland, America and Australia.

But what about Jet's most famously fictional fan: Alan Partridge - Does he still hold a candle for her?

The scene of Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, dictating into a Dictaphone the programme idea of “Jet from Gladiator to host a millennium barn dance at Yeovil aerodrome, properly policed it must not, repeat not turn into an all-night rave,” is one of the show’s most famous moments, and restored her to public consciousness, although she missed out on it at the time.

“I remember the scene where he’s jumping around on the bed, with a signed picture of me in his hands. I felt kind of flattered as it was so iconic, but if you go on Twitter and follow the Alan Partridge character, he’s only following one person, Shakira. I suppose I’m not that popular for him any more,” Diane said.

But Diane adds if there was a storyline involving a date with Norwich's most famous resident, she'd be involved.

Diane has retrained as a psychotherapist and in that capacity has appeared on television shows including Trisha and Big Brother’s Little Bit on the Side.

“Dancing on Ice or Strictly would be my absolute dream,” she said, “it’s always usually youngsters who win, but I think I could do something for ladies of a certain age.”

Reflecting back to when she was 21 and suddenly found herself in the primetime spotlight and public property, was a situation that took some getting used to.

In pre-email days, people wrote letters. Lots of letters.

“Literally, big sacks of mail kept coming to my parents’ house and my mum used to help me go through them,” she said, “I told her that if there was something where someone had done or made something that was a bit special to put it to one side, and that way I ended up meeting some people who were genuine fans who’ve gone on to become good friends. I really hated being recognised, though. Fame wasn’t an easy fit for me, it still isn’t really.”

Of the 12 original gladiators who started out in 1992, just four - Saracen, Cobra, Lightning and pantomime villain Wolf – made it through to the final show in 2000.  

Despite still being the most memorable name and face of the show 20 years after it finished, Jet crashed out in 1996 after a serious neck injury sustained not during the television recording, but in one of the live shows, when she fell off the pyramid.

“I heard a snap and I’ve heard those noises before, when you break bone or ligament,” she said, “it’s quite loud and it came from my neck area, but as I could breathe I knew I hadn’t broken my neck. That was it for me, though, I didn’t want to go back into the arena.”

The fear of serious injury had always preyed on the mind of the gladiators, and when it was Diane’s turn, she did not need a second warning.

She walked away, grateful that she was still able to walk at all.

“I always felt very nervous because it was quite dangerous, and high falls were where most of the accidents happened. Each year there were more of them, because the contenders got fitter, stronger and sharper, so we had to up our game.  My memory is mainly one of ‘am I always going to be able to walk away?’

“With Gladiators, there was no acting – you had to do it for real, and when [the accident] happened, I just thought ‘it’s not worth it.’ Some of the others lived for being a gladiator, but for me, it was another job I was fit enough to do. But I could re-identify with my life not being over just because I stopped being a gladiator.”

You can listen to the GladPod through all major podcast suppliers.

Or get in touch with the podcast with your Gladiators stories by emailing thegladpod@gmail.com