WITH another instalment in the Batman franchise looming, we take a look at who has played it best, from the original campy TV series to the most-recent Dark Knight trilogy.

The Sunday Telegraph has put together a list of actors who played Batman, Robin, Catwoman, the Joker, Penguin and Alfred best.

Do you agree? Take our poll and have your say.

Best Batman: Michael Keaton

Adam Ward brought the camp. Val Kilmer was the George Lazenby of Batmans. George Clooney had some funny one liners (“Why are the beautiful ones always homicidal maniacs? Is it me?”) and Christian Bale had an interesting brooding factor.

But Michael Keaton, cast by Tim Burton for Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), is our pick for the best of the caped crusaders.

Sure, he wasn’t the buffest of some of his successors and as far as raw sexual appeal goes he may have also pulled up a little short.

But Keaton’s ability to balance light and shade, strength and vulnerability as well as seriousness and humour was unrivalled.

It’s amazing to think that at the time of his casting in 1988, Keaton was hailed as a certain disaster.

How wrong they were.

No sooner was Batman released a year later did Variety gush that, as Bruce Wayne, “Keaton captures the haunting intensity of the character”.

He was also very funny and at times even bumbling when in his Wayne persona which was ramped up even more in Batman Returns.

Who could forget his flustered encounter with Selina Kyle for the second time, forgetting he was dressed like a human bat the first time he met her.

“I mistook me for someone else,” he babbles.

Or when he chastises dear old Alfred for letting Vicki Vale into the Bat cave.

“I turn around and there she is. ‘Oh hi Vick, come on in!’.”

But let’s also not forget that Keaton, not exactly what you would call heart throb material at the time, proved himself a worthy romantic lead opposite both Kim Basinger and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In fact, a fight scene with the latter — which ended with Pfeiffer’s Catwoman lasciviously licking his face from chin to cheek — would become one of the franchise’s sexiest moments.

Best Robin: Burt Ward

This one is a no brainier — sorry Chris!

But there was no one who quite filled Boy Wonder’s tights like Burt Ward who played Robin for 130 episodes of the TV series and again in the 1966 feature film.

Just 19 when he landed the role, Ward developed a cult following among female fans as well as a healthy following among gay viewers and his relationship with the caped crusader is debated for its homoerotic undertones to this day.

Ward certainly enjoyed fanning the flames of speculation, writing in his 1995 autobiography “Boy Wonder: My Life In Tights” that Adam West insisted Ward take pills to shrink his, er, ‘manhood’ as it greatly eclipsed his own.

He also wrote that Robin’s relationship with Batman could be interpreted as a sexual one, with the show’s double entendres and lavish camp also ‘possibly offering ambiguous interpretation’. In real life, however, Ward claimed to have slept with ‘thousands’ of women during the life of the show, including one who seduced him while he was wearing his costume.

Holy Over-Share!

Best Joker: Heath Ledger

It’s hard to argue against a performance that garnered Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar, though Jack Nicholson did receive a Bafta and Golden Globe nod for his 1989 interpretation.

The two performances were worlds apart however; under Christopher Nolan’s direction Ledger emphasised the character’s criminal insanity, whereas Nicholson kept more of the ‘clown’ in the term ‘Clown Prince of Crime’.

The latter also coined the iconic line; “Wait’ll they get a load of me”.

But Ledger, too, had his share of pearlers, including: “This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m gonna give it to them.”

And who can forget his grisly ‘pencil trick’. Yikes.

Of course Ledger’s submersion into the role was so that the actor struggled, psychologically to recover.

A fact which made his death from a drug overdose — six months before the film’s release — all the more haunting.

The Penguin: Danny DeVito

In Tim Burton’s (excellent) Batman Returns, Danny DeVito gives a truly worthy performance of the villainous Penguin — real name Oswald Cobblepot.

Born physically deformed and tossed in the sewer as a baby, his character is found by a group of trained circus penguins and raised by them before becoming the sinister boss of the Red Triangle Circus crime gang and later the mayor of Gotham City.

DeVito, who took the role of The Penguin on the advice of his pal Jack Nicholson, arguably pulls out one of the best performances of the whole franchise and insisted on doing most of his own stunts — including eating a raw fish and being pelted with actual rubbish by an angry mob.

Interestingly, Burgess Meredith, who played the Penguin on the Batman (1966) TV series, was asked to play the Penguin’s father in the opening of the film but illness prevented him from it.

Catwoman: Michelle Pfeiffer

If you needed any proof of how well Pfeiffer’s portrayal of Catwoman/Selina Kyle in 1992’s Batman Returns went down with fans, the studio was forced to reissue Catwoman movie posters for various cities as many of the bus stop ads were being stolen.

It reportedly soon got so bad that police officers had to patrol bus stops in order to catch perpetrators before they could break the Plexiglas containers.

Indeed Pfeiffer was sensational in the role after Annette Bening, Burton’s original choice, bowed out due to her pregnancy.

Sean Young, who had already missed out on the part of Vicki Vale in Batman, was so upset about not getting the part of Catwoman that she went to the studio in a homemade Catwoman costume to prove that she was a better choice.

It didn’t have the desired effect, however, and Pfeiffer ultimately made the whip-toting, butt-kicking role all of her own.

And yes, that was a real canary she put in her mouth.

The Riddler: Frank Gorshin

In a field of just two, it’s hard to go past Frank Gorshin’s turn in the original TV series despite the fact he appeared just ten times.

His performance was so well received it earned him an Emmy nomination in (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy) and created a template which Jim Carrey all but mirrored in 1995’s disastrous Batman Forever.

It was Gorshin who invented the Riddler’s signature, deranged cackle although he later admitted was inspired by tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in the cult flick Kiss of Death from 1947.

A prolific actor and stage performer, Gorshin worked up to his death at age 72 when he died of lung cancer.

A famously-heavy smoker, Adam West later claimed that “Frank could reduce a cigarette to ash with one draw”.

Alfred Pennyworth: Michael Caine

When it comes to Batman’s other sidekick, you can’t go past Michael Caine, who portrayed Bruce Wayne’s butler/guardian in the movies where Christian Bale plays Batman.

Caine reveals a dry wit and blinding loyalty as Alfred, which he continually proves throughout the Batman movies.

It’s lines like this that make him a top favourite. When Bruce Wayne asks “You still haven’t given up on me?” Caine as Alfred Pennyworth replies, “Never”.

Nice one.