Number Plate Stories

Film and TV Plates

Another hero of a children’s television programme was Batman, an American fantasy crime drama which became popular in Britain in the late 1960’s. The caped crusader and his sidekick Robin, used the turbo powered Batmobile to pursue Gotham City’s criminals, namely The Joker, Penguin and The Riddler. Batman’s car had four unique number plates in all: 2F-3567, TP-6597, 2EF-456 and of course BAT-1.

Producer William Dozier made a point of zooming in on Batman and Robin fastening their seat belts since the Automobile Legal Association claimed that Batman was television’s worst driver. They reported that in just one episode, Batman was shown crashing through safety barriers, making U-turns on a busy street and failing to signal. I doubt if any of these dangers even crossed the minds of the children avidly viewing each episode, and Batman’s lack of road safety has certainly not stood in the way of full length feature films being made. In fact, the Batmobile with BAT 1 remains one of best loved cars from any television series.

There is no doubt that personal number plates will continue to be used to enhance character’s cars in films and on TV. In 2001, number plate dealer Regtransfers was asked by Stephen Smallwood, producer of the police drama The Vice, if they could borrow a pair of matching plates. They were happy to oblige and N1 KFB and N1 CFB were used on a Bentley and a Lexus 4x4 for an episode which focused on a criminal husband and wife duo.

More recently, Wallace and Gromit’s new film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit features the amusing number plate HOP 21T. As animator Nick Park has proved, where plates are concerned, you can let your imagination run wild.

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