The yarn creations that appeared in Gladiators skit

The knitted replicas of Gladiators Fire, Viper, Fury and Nitro appeared on Saturday's show

They were created for a yarn bomb event last summer, but then became contenders for a cameo on primetime television.

The large knitted replicas of Gladiators Fire, Viper, Fury and Nitro appeared on the BBC show on Saturday.

They featured in a skit in which Nitro, whose real name is Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, pretended he had taken up knitting and created the figures himself.

But they were actually the work of members of Leicestershire's Cosby Yarn Bomb group, which spent months working on them.

The knitted figures were placed in the audience for the filming of the show

Mel Charnock, one of the organisers of Cosby Yarn Bomb, said: "The theme of our yarn bomb event last summer was fun and games, mischief and mayhem, so we decided to do a knitted display of life-size Gladiators, just for our own amusement really.

"Then the producers of the show saw some photos on social media and they got in touch and asked if they could use them on the show."

The knitted figures were created by a number of members of the yarn bomb group.

Different people knitted different sections of each figure, such as skin or their costumes, which were stitched together and pulled over a frame made from wood, wadding and flexible plastic piping to create the figure.

'Very exciting'

Miss Charnock said: "When we decided to make Gladiators we really felt the pressure to recreate actual Gladiators that looked exactly like them.

"But we still did a bit of a comedy take on it, so instead of calling our Gladiators Fire, Cobra, Fury and Nitro, Fire became Hot Flush, Fury became Miffed - she was almost called 'Mardy' because it's such a Leicester word - Cobra was Worm and Nitro was Methane."

Posting on social media ahead of the show being aired, Cosby Yarn Bomb said the figures were given "a quick refresh" before being sent to Sheffield for filming, adding it had "no idea if they made the final cut".

Asked how the yarn bomb group felt about their creations featuring on the show, Miss Charnock told the BBC: "It's been very exciting."

The Cosby Yarn Bomb event, which includes between 60 and 70 life-sized knitted and crocheted characters, has been held in the village since 2019.

However, organisers have now decided to hold the event every two years with the next set to take place in 2026.