DMaggsKnightfall

Unlike Superman, Batman is an exciting character with a broad canvas to work with.
There's plenty of depth to this dark hero who by day is millionnaire businessman
Bruce Wayne and by night a costumed vigilante. It is important, however, to portray
the Batman as it was originally intended, as a sinister, single-minded semi-psychotic.
This is what happens in the two Tim Burton films, it's the arrangement for the award-
winning animated series and, thankfully, it's very much the format here for radio.

Jean Paul Valley inherits the
identity of Azreal the
Avenging Angel from his
father, a member of a secret
society called the Order of St.
Dumas. As the mental
conditioning threatens to
overwhelm his own
personality, Bruce Wayne
helps him to maintain a
semblance of normality.

Meanwhile, there's a new
player in Gotham City. Born
in prison to a drug-addicted
mother, Bane has been raised
on Venom, a super-steroid
which, when injected, boosts
muscle strength a
hundredfold. Bane wants to
take over as crime lord and
sees the Batman as his only
real obstacle. Attacking
Arkham Asylum, he creates a
mass breakout of all the

sociopaths Batman has spent years putting away. Standing back and watching with
satisfaction, Bane sees our hero become steadily more run-down as he sets to the
obligatory task of rounding-up the criminals, starting with the low-key hoods. When
the Batman is merely a shadow of his former self, Bane steps from the shadows and,
infront of a terrified populace, breaks the Dark Knight's back and drops him from a
rooftop.

Awnings break his fall, and Tim Drake and faithful manservant Alfred Pennyworth are
quick on the scene as bogus paramedics to spirit him away. Tim Drake has been in
training as the new Robin, since Dick Grayson left to become Nightwing. Bruce
Wayne, now in a wheelchair as the result of a supposed car accident, refuses Alfred's
pleas to rest. Seeing Gotham dissolve in to chaos, Bruce has no choice but to hand
over the mantle of the Bat to Jean Paul Valley, and send him out in his costume with
the new Robin

Jean Paul defeats Bane by depriving him of the strength-inducing Venom, but the
mental conditioning of Azreal the Avenging Angel takes a firm hold. Adapting the Bat
costume in to a tough body armour, he uses the gauntlets to fire bat-shaped
razorblades. In battles he becomes steadily more ruthless and cruel, and eventually
allows a man to die. Robin is shunned and blocked from entering the Batcave, and the
neglected Wayne Manor is falling to ruin.

Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred are
in England following up a lead on
the kidnapped Doctor Kinsolving,
his recent back injury expert
physiotherapist. Under aritocratic
aliases they invite themselves to
the Huntley Ball, where a private
demonstation of psi-energy is
taking place involving the
kidnapped Kinsolving. Bruce is
accidentally caught in a backlash
whilst attempting a rescue, and his
back is miraculously healed, but
at the cost of mental regression to
childhood for Doctor Kinsolving.

Arriving back in Gotham, Bruce is
told by Tim Drake that Jean Paul
is out of control. Bruce decides
to return to his former identity,
but he is not yet ready to
challenge the new Bat-pretender.
Although physically fit, he is out
of

To my untrained ears the quality of sound is nothing short of stupendous, although
Dirk has gone on record as saying Knightfall was the first real effort to get to grips
with Dolby Surround, and that mixing and panning can be much more focussed using
Dolby 5.1. Nevertheless, the sound is best appreciated with multiple speakers or
ideally through headphones. I first experienced this veritable assault on the senses in
the early hours of a Saturday morning in 1994. In the dead of night the multitude of
layered sound effects, followed by total silence at the right moment, left me at times
shellshocked, particularly at the conclusion of tape 1 when the Batman is 'broken' by
Bane. The sound effects are plentiful, as they should be, and are ably assisted by
Mark Russell's orchestral score, which is very reminiscent of the movies.

Bob Sessions plays the title role, with Kerry Shale as Jean Paul Valley (also excellent
as The Joker), Peter Marinker as Bane, and Michael Gough reprising his role from the
films as Alfred the butler. All performances are convincing, although the character of
Shondra Kinsolving appears to have been included simply to throw a little psi-energy
at the disabled Bruce Wayne at the appropriate moment. However, that lies at the
hands of DC Comics and writers Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Doug Moench and
Dennis O'Neil, who otherwise have created a fantastic tale.

There are villains aplenty: The Joker, The
Riddler, Scarface, Scarecrow, The Mad
Hatter, The Ventriloquist, and Film Freak;
they're all here except The Penguin and
Catwoman, it seems. All of the criminals are
totally psychotic, but there are no hammed
performances, which was my main fear.
Even The Ventriloquist, who wears a sock
on his hand and speaks in a squeaky voice,
proves chilling rather than humorous. In this
script it is not only the hoodlums who are
psychotic, the entire city seems deranged,
which is at least in keeping with the key
character who faithfully adopts the traditional
Dark Knight portrayal from the comics,
lending the piece a mainly gothic horror feel.

three volumes, A Knight's Fall, A Hero's Quest, and A Batman Reborn, adapted from
the DC Comics arcs, Knightfall, Knightquest, and Knight's End. The idea was to
create the very first daily drama broadcast on BBC Radio 1. Although initially rather
daunting for Dirk, the writing and recording ran pretty smoothly. It first aired in 1994
to instant success, the segments being slotted in easily between the chart records.

Batman - Knightfall was produced for BBC light entertainment and released in 1994 by
the BBC Radio Collection (ZBBC 1612). All episodes were edited together to make
one uninterrupted three-hour storyline with a relentless pace. Upon commercial release
Knightfall reached No.1 in the Spoken Word charts in the UK. I would strongly
recommend anyone to beg, borrow or even buy a copy of Knightfall (although I hear
it's now out of circulation). You won't be sorry; this is a staggering achievement which
immerses you in scenes of chaos and allows you to hang on to Batman's cape as he
attempts to install order. It kind of makes you wish for a film version, whilst realising it
could never live up to the special effects inside your head.

"With 65 episodes of action featuring a lot of
the big Batman criminals, it was necessary to
use a lot of actors on KNIGHTFALL. It
helped that this was Radio 1's first daily
drama and they were prepared to make the
budget available! In fact there was still quite
a bit of 'doubling', I could have wished for
more but it worked very well.

"The feedback was very positive from both
the industry and fans, thank goodness. DC
Comics were very pleased with the result.
Batman chief writer Denny O'Neil sent me a
signed copy of the KNIGHFALL novel
which I still treasure, and generally speaking
the press were very supportive. The Daily
Telegraph said it 'struck just the right balance
between Gothic horror, gung-ho heroism and
camp humour, and maintained it', which is a

fair enough comment on what we were trying to achieve. Favourable comparisons
were made to the Tim Burton movies, which I was pleased about. Fans on the whole
seem to think it is an accurate portrait of the Batman existing in the comics of the early
90s - I still get emails asking where they can buy tapes - sadly it has been deleted
(along with the Superman stuff) - I'm hoping BBC Radio 7 can get the rights to repeat
them so keep an eye on their website folks - better yet, write in!

"Funnily enough casting BATMAN was a no-brainer - back in 1988 Bob Sessions had
come in to audition for the part of SUPERMAN when we made the 50th Birthday
Supes Docudrama SUPERMAN ON TRIAL. As soon as he walked in and said hello
the voice was obviously BATMAN. Not the gravelly pseudo-tough guy Michael
Keaton thing, but a rich deep Cary Grant with a bit of gravel. And he had the integrity
too. As Batman was also in the docudrama - called upon to give 'evidence' at the trial
(rather ambiguous evidence that nearly had Supes despatched to the Phantom Zone!) -
he was cast as Batman then and there. The following year we made the Batman 50th
birthday tribute, BATMAN: THE LAZARUS SYNDROME, and Bob really got his
teeth into the part. Bob as Batman and Paul Maxwell as Commissioner Gordon -
terrific teaming.

"Both have sadly passed away now, and although William Roberts played Gordon
brilliantly in KNIGHTFALL, I cannot imagine who I'd get to play Batman now. Funny
thing about Bob, he had the matinee idol dark good looks, and he was actually a song
and dance man! He'd come to the UK years before from the USA and played in all the
big West End Musicals. A lovely person, a true Gentleman, I miss him to this day. We
always wanted to try and do Frank Miller's THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS
together, but sadly it wasn't to be. He used to phone up when things were quiet and
ask if there was anything going in the other American shows I was doing, I felt awful
but I'd always yell, 'Bob, you're Batman! I can't possibly ask you to be anyone else!'
Which of course was stupid because he was a fine actor and singer and very versatile.
Now I could kick myself, it was always such a pleasure to work with him."

Review by Ty Power