Knightfall

John 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 massive 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, in front 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

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, The Mad Hatter, The Ventriloquist and Film Freak; they're all here except The Penquin 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.

Unlike Superman, Batman is an exciting character with a broad canvas to work with. There's plenty of depth to this dark hero who is by day 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.

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.

In 1993, when Matthew Bannister took over BBC Radio 1, he approached Dirk Maggs for a daytime serial. Dirk decided to revisit the popular Batman character (after previously adapting The Lazarus Syndrome) and Knightfall was born. There were sixty-five three-minute episodes separated into 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 (the original tapes are out of circulation, but it finds itself on CD for the first time in 2007). 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 you head.

Let's leave the final words to

"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 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 the fans, thank goodness. DC Comics were very pleased with the result. Batman chief writer Denny O'Neil sent me a signed copy of the Knightfall 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 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 had been deleted (along with the Superman stuff [Doomsday And Beyond was released on CD in 2006]) - I'm hoping BBC Radio 7 can get the rights to repeat them so keep an eye on their website folks. Better yet, write it!

"Funnily enough casting Batman was a no-brainer - back in 1988 Bob Sessions had

Dirk...

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 would 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 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

supposed car accident, refuses Alfred's pleas to rest. Seeing Gotham dissolve into 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 into 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 folling up a lead on the kidnapped Doctor Kinsolving, his recent back injury expert physiotherapist. Under aristocratic aliases they invite themselves to the Hunley Ball, where a demonstration 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 asks the Lady Shiva to train him; she asks him to wear the