This is the full version of the article I wrote for The Nottingham Post, which unfortunately wasn't used.
When the time comes to compile a list of the most influential people on twitter, I know that my name will not be on it. Therefore, it was with little surprise that I received an email from an old friend on Facebook to tell me that a rumour I had started had made it onto a TV show called Inside Hollywood. Therefore, I think I should come clean on something; Adam West will not be appearing in the new Batman film. That was me pulling your leg.
For those unfamiliar with twitter, (and wake up, it is 2011) the hash tag # is a method of linking several threads together so that anyone can find out more. For example, #Nottingham and #Batman will lead you to my exclusive revelations that Adam West is in the new Batman film.
I wasn't sure if my hoax would even make a dent in the overpopulated gossip network that is the Internet. My previous word of mouth story around Nottingham that a statue of Su Pollard dressed as Peggy Ollerenshaw was to be erected in the Market Square fountains didn't take off, mainly because twitter had not been invented back then.
However, slowly the Batman rumour came to blossom, I toyed with the idea of pretending to know nothing about it. My plan failed because the trail led back to me., my twitter feed hash-tag, and the fact that I had posted on this newspaper's online forum. The trouble is, online forums about comic book characters, sorry graphic novels, characters are read by a certain kind of clientele. The sort who spend all day looking at online forums. About comic book characters.
I received an email from a Nottingham Post writer asking if I had more information on the subject, which is when I lost my bottle and decided to come clean. It was me, I started it. The journalist Marcus Boocock had obviously traced this ridiculous whimsy back to myself, and had been assigned the task of seeing if it was true. I just assumed that he had read my original post, and maybe my tweets and that was that. What I was hitherto unaware of was that my name had been plastered all over the world as the source of this trivial joke that I decided to pull. I feel like the man who faked Hitler's diary all of a sudden. Has anyone ever been on page two of Google? I have.
The national papers read the locals to see if there is anything of use, and I originally wondered how long it would take to spread this story to a tabloid at least. I admitted to Marcus that I made the whole thing up, and explained what I have just explained here. Getting an email from The Post was a case of 'my work here is done', and nobody has been hurt. It was only while writing this piece that I typed 'Adam West Nottingham' into Google, and realised that I had created a monster.
It is not a popular opinion, but I happen to enjoy the 'Kapow' silliness of the series. Although I'm not an avid comic collector I do like the films, and you are guaranteed to wind someone up if you say of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer or Christian Bale, "He's good but he's no Adam West". The series is sometimes that you can watch repeatedly, whether with irony or without, and laugh at the absurdity of it. Whatever situation Batman and Robin get into, there will be an antidote in the utility belt. When Batman and Robin climb a building, their capes do not move in the breeze. Nobody has asked Mr West's opinion on this none-story, but one suspects that being mayor of Quahog is a time consuming job.
