above

After opening night there were no repeat viewings, but the media buzz was still strong. The film had been a huge success and it was all over every tabloid newspaper. Every aspect of the stars were explored and it even made a minor celeb out of stunt man Dave Lea - perhaps there was an amount of nation pride that Dave being a Brit was taking all the falls and punches for Batman. I have the newspaper cuttings featuring Dave that I later would use in a school project.

Without repeat viewings the only way to relive the film was through the Topps trading cards I had collected - but without a full set, that was a patchy experience at best. It also impanted a few false memories. Cards 86 - 89 of Series 1 show Batman fighting Bob, a deleted scene, which now I was convinced I'd seen in the cinema!

The Topps cards sustained my love of the film for quite a while. The release of Series 2 (the yellow ones) showed me how the film was made. Bear in mind, there were no shops close by that sold magazines like Cinefex, Starburst and publications like that. The comic book adaption would remain a secret to me until the mid-90s, although there was a 4 part poster magazine that went on sale at the time of the films release, so I had the first one of those.

Whilst fans in USA could pick up a VHS in November of 1989, those of us in the UK would have to wait until January 1990. Not that that made much difference to me - my famly didn't have a VHS player at this stage. It would be 1991 before we would own a JVC player. Before that we hired a player from the local video store (Country Video Club - the best video store in the world) every December for a couple of weeks of binge watching.

The VHS release here in the UK was just a big a deal as it had been in the US a couple of months previous. A video chain store here in Northern Ireland ran full page newspaper adverts in the run up to release. I don't have any of the adverts now but they had the Bat-emblem and in big letters above it were the words "Holy Catfish Batman!"

OK, so I have a rental copy of Batman now, but the 90's were a different time

Without a VHS player at home though it meant nothing. Until the following year of course.

Back in those days people only rented VHS and Betamax. Nobody bought them. There was no real retail market until maybe a couple of years later (it really did explode at that time though).

Sky TV (satellite TV broadcaster) had launched in the late 1980's, bringing those who could afford it The Simpsons and movies earlier than terrestrial tv stations like BBC anf ITV. It was in mid 1991 that Sky Movies would premiere Batman. Then the buzz started again. Recorded copies started getting passed around in school - though I never managed to get one.

Apart from rental copies of Batman (which you weren't always guaranteed to find) I would have to wait to get my copy of the film. And that would be on Christmas Day 1991 when BBC1 premiered it. It was an edited version of the film with some scenes and words cut out - but I didn't care, and probably didn't notice too much. That recording was played to death - and probably contributed to the VHS player breaking at one point (although it was a great opporunity for me and my dad to take it apart to find the fault - a broken gear).

Film soundtracks were also something that just weren't on sale around here back in the day (or today either for that point) so in order to listen to Danny Elfman's theme I had to rig up a tape recorder. It wasn't great, but it was better than nothing!

For years that BBC edit was MY version of Batman 1989. Still to this day the actual version surprises me!

Next: The wilderness and the project (coming soon)