From Gladiator to God: My Journey with Katie Price and the Toughest Challenge Yet in My New TV Show

AS God’s Gladiator, The Reverend Warren Furman, says he always fights the good fight.

But presenter reveals that he had to step in to stop , who was Ace in the original Gladiators, having a punch up with another contestant on TV’s latest reality show.

The Reverend Warren Furman has told how he got back into shape for new TV show The SummitCredit: ITV Former Gladiator ACE, Warren Furman, being ordained at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2024Credit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun The now Reverend Furman as Gladiator AceCredit: Shutterstock Editorial

, which begins on tonight and tomorrow, sees star Ben take 14 strangers to to make a 100km journey, climbing a terrifying 8,500ft mountain in just 14 days to try to win a cash prize of £200,000.

TV bosses approached Warren, , after The Sun revealed was training to .

At 53, the father-of-two is the oldest competitor in the gruelling challenge where contestants have two weeks to reach the snow-capped summit of Mount Head, which rises more 6,000 feet in just over a mile of hiking.

Think of meets and in life-or-death conditions where each contestant carries their share of the two hundred grand prize in their rucksack.

If you think that’s an exaggeration, a Norwegian version of the programme was made but never screened after a contestant had a heart attack and died.

Warren, who is 6ft 1ins tall, and still fit for his age says: “When Gladiators came out it was the ultimate challenge. But you’ve never seen anything like this. Humans pushed their limits. This is the ultimate, ultimate challenge.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The scariest. And profoundly life changing.”

God loves mountains

Now Associate Curate in Charge at a church in Hammersmith, West London, near Wormwood Scrubs , Warren asked his senior parishioners to pray for guidance on whether he should take part.

Warren says: “God loves mountains and a tent.”

Like in The Traitors, contestants are sworn to secrecy about what happens in the eight-part series.

But presenter Ben has revealed one of the other contestants, former Afghan veteran Shaun Docherty, 36, who Shephard describes as “manipulative”, had a set-to with the vicar.

Ben says: “I had to defuse a very febrile situation. It was incendiary at times.”

Warren, whose wife Dionne is also a curate at the church, says: “I think they psychologically profile you to make sure you’re not completely nuts.

“I had to do a fitness test. I’d kept myself half-fit. Not Gladiator fit, so I went along and they hustled me in the back door of a gym to do things like pull-ups and then they were taking blood.

“My wife said, ‘Maybe that’s not a good sign, perhaps they’re going to want more blood from you’.

“Then, before I knew it, I was on an aeroplane flying to the other side of the world to the South Island of New Zealand.

“We had to fly via where Ben Shephard was seen in the airport and a rumour started that he was going to do I’m A Celebrity.”

Filmed in November, 2024, just as spring was turning to summer in Lord Of The Rings country, the 14 contestants met for the first time without any opportunity beforehand for introductions.

It wasn’t a set like I’m A Celebrity. We’d have days of endless walking and climbing and hiking. Trying to find base camps and the weather would close in on us. It was scary

Warren Furman on new show The Summit

Each contestant handed in their phone and they were given the £200,000 prize in cash.

Warren says: “That has a way of bringing the worst out of people. If you want to see capitalism at its worst, strap £200 grand on someone’s back and say, ‘Right, first one to the top wins it’.

“So, they dish it out equally, and now you have nearly 20,000 quid on your back, in crisp £50 notes, that the others want.

“Suddenly people who were once looking at you as ‘Warren’ are now looking at you as £20K.

Warren adds: It wasn’t a set like I’m A Celebrity. We’d have days of endless walking and climbing and hiking. Trying to find base camps and the weather would close in on us. It was scary.

“There’s cameras and in the field all the time, even when you’re sleeping.

“Once you’re in mountainous territory, that’s when it becomes really dangerous and you’re tied to other people.

“If you fall through or into a glacier, if you fall off the side of the mountain, those people have got to be your anchor.

“What worried me is, I was a big lump tied to a couple of women. It’s not very reassuring, is it? I know I weigh more than both of them put together.

“I know I’m going to heaven, Mike, but I’m not ready to go yet. I’m not sure my wife and my kids would have been happy if I went just yet either. But it was certainly a touch and go.”

Warren on a rickety bridge in ITV show, The SummitCredit: ITV Warren with former girlfriend Katie Price in 1998Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd The Summit presenter Ben Shephard reveals that he had to step in to stop Warren having a punch up with another contestantCredit: PA

As they climbed the peak, Ben would appear out of nowhere, like the Abominable Snowman.

Warren says: “Ben is a down-to earth-lad, very friendly. He’s more muscular and bigger than I remembered him on the TV.

“I had to have a squeeze of his biceps. I reckon he could give us all a run for our money. I’m glad he didn’t compete. He’d have beaten us to the money.”

We are chatting to Warren at the home of his friend, ex-bodybuilder and Sun Page 7 fella Kirk Gittens near Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.

They met at school and when Warren became Ace the Gladiator in 1996, Kirk helped him train in the gym and became his minder.

Warren says: “I went from literally having nothing to everything overnight and I became a celebrity. You become public property and I wasn’t ready for that at all.

“I still lived in a council house in Harlow where there was quite a fighting mentality.

“Someone attacked me and the producer said, ‘If I get one photograph of you with a fist clenched or in a punch-up, you’re sacked’.

I’m ashamed

“People would want to meet me and they’d want to shake my hand and they’d go, ‘Oh, you’re not as big as you look on the telly’.

“I’d know through the hand grip what was going to happen next, they would swing a punch or try to headbutt you.

This geezer said, ‘I’m Tony Lambrianou. I’ve been looking for you for over a year’.

Warren on being cornered by former Kray henchman

“I remember saying to the producer, ‘How do I look after myself in that situation?’ And he said, ‘Don’t go out then’.

“I didn’t want to compromise on the nightclubbing, so we hatched a plan. Kirk said, ‘If you look round to me and wink, I’ll finish the handshake for you’. So that’s what we did.

“It’s terrible, I know, and I’m ashamed but it was a plan that worked. People knew not to take liberties.”

On a night out at an East End do, with actor , Warren was threatened by — the Kray’s henchman.

Warren remembers: “I went to the toilet and two big bald fellas shut the door.

“Then some guy, all wavy grey hair, came walking over to me while I was at the urinal.

“I looked around for Kirk. He wasn’t with me and they knew it.

“This geezer said, ‘I’m Tony Lambrianou. I’ve been looking for you for over a year. You had an altercation with my son in the Epping Forest Country Club’.

“Suddenly, I remembered. I’d been stood with , who was my girlfriend in those days and Lambrianou’s son walked in between the two of us, looked her up and down, winked at her and walked into the toilets.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa’. I followed him in and said, ‘What was that about?’ Don’t be doing that again. Some words were said.

“Then a couple of his mates came in and he pretended to rear up.

“I’d forgotten all about it until then. I turned to this Tony Lambrianou and said, ‘So is that your son?’

“I thought I’m going to have to front this now: ‘Mate, you should be ashamed. I was with my girlfriend and he not only disrespected me, but her as well. Looked her up and down and sort of laughed’.”

“The Kray’s man said, ‘That’ll be my boy. Oh, that’s not the story he gave me. I said, ‘Well, that’s what happened. I assure you.’

“The two lads on the door opened it and walked out. He followed them. I think we were probably closer to danger than we realised

Sadly, Kirk, 55, has Motor Neurone Disease and it is Warren’s turn to help his friend.

After being diagnosed three years ago, Kirk, who has to use a walker and a mobility scooter, was planning to go to Swiss clinic Dignitas to end his life. Warren told him: “That’s not going to happen, mate.”

And thanks to Warren’s faith, Kirk now looks forward to every day of his life and is going to do a bungee jump to raise money for MND.

In May, Warren hopes to conduct a service in the garden for Kirk and his wife Ali to renew their vows on their 20th wedding anniversary.

Warren says: “Facing The Summit was one of the hardest challenges of my life but it pales into insignificance compared to the metaphorical mountain of MND that I see Kirk and his family bravely face every single day.

“I may have been a Gladiator in the Nineties but Kirk is a real-life gladiator fighting the battle of his life.”

• The Summit starts on ITV1 tonight at 9pm.

Warren’s pal ex-bodybuilder and Sun Page 7 fella Kirk Gittens, has Motor Neurone DiseaseCredit: Arthur Edwards / The Sun Warren with fellow Gladiators Khan and Saracen, and presenter Ulrika JonssonCredit: Rex