Batman's new movie villain is a Gypsy king from Staffordshire

From the Sunday Mercury

THE secret identity of Batman’s arch-enemy has been revealed – he’s a Midland Irish Traveller dubbed the “King of the Gypsies”.

Hollywood star Tom Hardy has told how the voice he used as back-breaking Bane in batbuster The Dark Knight Rises was modelled on Bartley Gorman, an infamous bare-knuckle boxer from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.

Batfans were captivated by the sinister tones of the movie villain who plots to destroy Gotham City with a nuclear bomb, and leaves the caped crusader crippled in a prison cell bed, his spine shattered.

Now Hardy, 34, who made his TV acting debut in the Band Of Brothers wartime TV series, has revealed Bane’s secret.

“We had two doors we could open,” he says. “One of them was to go down the line and have Bane be a straight villain.

“The other one was the silly door. Director Chris Nolan opened the silly door, so we used Bartley Gorman’s voice. He’s the king of the Gypsies, and he’s a boxer, a bare-knuckle boxer, an Irish Traveller, a Gypsy.”

Gorman featured in a 1995 documentary by Shane Meadows – creator of the This Is England series – which chronicled his violent life.

In King Of The Gypsies, Gorman told how he beat every challenger for his crown in brutal bare knuckle boxing matches.

Speaking in the film, he said: “It’s so violent I can’t explain it to you. When I get men in front of me, they try to kill me.

“And the men behind them are shouting: ‘Kill him! kill him!’.

“They ain’t no referee going to jump in because you’ve got a cut on your eye.”

Gorman, who started fighting at the age of 10, added: “My father took me to the gym where I would fight the big boys there. They would hurt me and make me cry, but all the time I was crying I was still fighting.”

He moved to Uttoxeter when he was 20 and succeeded as “King” at the age of 28 in 1972, on the death of the previous king Uriah Burton, and after a bare knuckle fight with a man named Fletcher.

He was undefeated over the next 25 years of bare-fisted bouts, which took place down a mine shaft, in a quarry, at horse fairs, on camp sites, in bars and on the street. But he died from cancer in 2002.

Filmgoer David Lambert, from Stourbridge, said: “I have no idea how Hardy came into contact with Gorman, or even how he heard his voice unless, of course, he saw the documentary.

“But The Dark Knight Rises could end up the biggest box office hit of all time – and Bartley will forever be a part of that.”

In the US, the movie notched up the third biggest opening weekend ever, and has now grossed more than £630 million worldwide.