Batman: Hey Diddle Riddle & Smack in the Middle

Hey Diddle Riddle

"I'll stand at the bar. I shouldn’t wish to attract attention."

Here we go, then.

I used to watch this on telly all the time in the '80s and early '90s, but it's been considerably more than twenty years since I saw an episode, Now I've picked up the whole series in the January sales, and I'm in for the long haul with this high camp classic.

This brightly coloured adventure serial, and its deadpan camp humour, seem miles away from the somewhat dark character that Batman has become. But the fact is that the noir early comics of '39 didn't last long, and Batman spent the '40s and '50s as a square-jawed do-gooder. Denny O'Neill's "darknight detective" version of the character didn't appear until the very end of the '60s. This series is a more faithful version of the comics of the time than you probably think.

This has all the charm and sense of fun that 1949's plodding Batman and Robin movie serial so clearly lacks. The first episode opens with a fun little introductory voiceover before we head straight into a splendid set piece with an exploding cake. Then... a riddle on a parachute. And we meet the hilariously square jawed Commissioner Gordon, with his comedy sidekick Chief O'Hara... and an Inspector Bash who seems just as prominent. Then we have, for the first time ever, Gordon looking grimly towards the Batphone, and their only hope.

We then briefly meet Alfred, Bruce Wayne, Aunt Harriet and, finally, Dick Grayson. And Adam West (like Neil Hamilton) is a master at playing things exaggeratedly straight as a man driven to fight crime after his parents were killed "by dastardly criminals". And for the first time we see the ultimate moment of high camp as the bookshelf slides aside to reveal a sign saying "Access to Batcave by Batpoles, and individual poles marked "Dick" and "Bruce". I'm already in love with this programme.

So many firsts... the Batmobile. Robin's first "Batteries to power, turbines to speed". The first (uninterrupted) climb up a wall. And, in the Riddler, our first villain- only a minor comics character in 1966 but made immortal by Frank Gorshin's incredibly nuanced performance riding the exact line between comedy villain and dangerous psychopath, whose laughter is just the right side of unhinged and whose latent hint of violence never quite crosses the line. Meanwhile, Batman pauses just before they jump through a window t gently upbraid Robin on pedestrian safety.

And then- a '60s nightclub in all its glory- and Robin is left outside because he's underage. Molly flirting with Batman. And, most awesomely of all, Batman doing the very dance that Pulp Fiction would have Uma Thurman homage 28 years later. I don't even care if the first ever cliffhanger is a bit rubbish.



Smack in the Middle

"Don't you know that crime never pays?"

I like the recaps with the stills and the excited voiceover. I also like the extraordinary tension between Frank Gorshin and Jill St John, she of Diamonds Are Forever and the first of many femme fatales whom Batman will hope to reform. Her little subplot is laugh out loud for us watching adults- our first sight of her dressing up as Robin with the Riddler comes across very much as a sex game, and Gorsgin has the Riddler juuuust the right side of a menacingly sexual leer, stopping just short of hinting at sexual violence.

Batman's effortless seeing through Molly's disguise is, of course, deliberately silly, as is her falling into the Batcave's nuclear core (ah, those days before Health and Safety), which makes no sense whatsoever but isn't supposed to.

After a bit of riddling and misdirection we finally get Batman and Robin shooting the Riddler's goons- and our first experience of seeing words like "Krunch!" on screen. The Riddler gets a suitably ambiguous exit, Bruce mopes a bit over Molly and we end on, er, some algebra.

So that's the formula. And a splendid formula it is- to the kids, just like the old movie serials with lots of set pieces and added colourful villains. But it's the truly magnificent high camp script from the great Lorenzo Semple Jr, and the equally splendid performances, that make this so extraordinary.