Mark Frost transforms into The Joker for Batman Live

Jul 3 2011 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

PLAYING one of fiction’s most iconic villains is no joke for Mark Frost.

The Birmingham actor is thrilled to be the Joker in the spectacular new arena show, Batman Live.

But he is also daunted to follow in the footsteps of actors Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero.

Playing the Caped Crusader’s arch enemy – a grinning maniacal killer – shouldn’t be too much of a stretch, though, for a man who has produced some memorable TV nasties.

He played a murdering racist in The Bill, a vicious wife-beater in the BBC1 drama The Stretford Wives, and Alex Kingston’s evil gangster husband in Hope Springs.

Yet in real life, 42 year-old Mark could hardly be more pleasant.

“It’s testament to my acting skills that I keep playing baddies!” laughs Mark, who grew up in Longbridge and whose father, ironically, was Chief Superintendent Joe Frost of West Midlands Police.

“You get one villain and if you do it well, people remember you.

“The Joker is an interesting part because it involves charm, clowning and comedy – but he’s deeply unpleasant, psychotic and murderous.

“Everyone has ideas about how the Batman villains should be, especially the Joker, so it is daunting.

“Heath Ledger was so extraordinary in The Dark Knight. It’s very difficult to break away from that, but it would be impossible to replicate that kind of performance in this show.

“Hopefully we have something very different.”