Knightfall

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 business-
man 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 condition. He

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.

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