Podcast Pointers: Hard Agree with Andrew Sumner puts Batman 66 in its spotlight

By John Freeman on May 2, 2021

Hard Agree is a new pop culture podcast hosted by Andrew Sumner, who has been reading comics since the 1960s, about the things that connect and unite us, whatever those things may be, whatever our differences might be – the things that we can hard agree on. The latest episode sets it’s focus very firmly on Batman 66, with anecdotes galore.

Former publisher, movie journalist and television presenter, now Executive Vice President at Titan Entertainment, helping develop Forbidden Planet’s collectibles lines Andrew freely admits to being a “very hardcore comics nerd”. It’s no surprise, then, that seven episodes in, Hard Agree includes interviews with Dave Gibbons, Garth Ennis and Max Allan Collins.

The latest episode hears him chatting with Spoilerverse founders, John Horsley and Kenric Regan, about his first encounter with Batman – Batman 66 – a deep dive into his love of the classic 1966 show, which he first encountered in the cinema, as in the UK, we enjoyed the feature film, before the TV series reached the our TV screens here.

Find out how he encountered Adam West in a roundabout way through his agent, Barry Greenberg by complete and happy accident, and freely admits he got completely starstruck!

There’s discussion of Bat Girl, actor Lyle Waggoner, who was considered for the role of Batman, the perfect casting, Adam West’s deadpan performance and more. It’s great fun, although Andrew does rather let his enthusiasm run away with him (to be fair, he did warn us) and poor John and Kenric don’t get that much air time… but Andrew’s anecdotes make up for that and at least the boys did manage to give us the heads up that actor Burt Ward, who platted Robin in the 1960’s show, will be appearing in Spoilerverse very soon.

This video Includes a short interview with Adam West. It compares the screen tests of Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell with Adam West and Burt Ward

While the first episodes are comics-focused, Andrew assures us Hard Agree will open up as it goes on.

“I’ve recorded episodes with people like Ed Asner and Olly Smith, the wine guy from Saturday Kitchen,” he reveals. Quite a mix!

Check it out now, over on Apple Podcasts. Some mild swearing!

• Check out Hard Agree from Andrew Sumner here on Apple Podcasts – or check out the episode here on the Spoilerverse web site

• Check out Batman 66 on Amazon Prime

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.