Batman 'too dark for under-12s'

The classification of the new Batman film was today attacked by senior MPs.

Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith criticised the rating for The Dark Knight after taking his 15-yearold daughter to see it.

He suggested that the British Board of Film Classification had "caved in to commercial pressures" by giving it a 12A certification.

Amid growing worries about knife crime in London, he said: "I was astonished that the BBFC could have seen fit to allow anyone under 15 to watch the film. Heath Ledger's Joker is a brilliantly acted but very credible psychopathic killer, who extols the use of knives to kill and disfigure his victims, during a reign of urban terrorism, laced with torture.

"It is a relentlessly violent film, filled with dark themes. There is no way that a parent could have been guided by the classification and realised what they were about to see."

He added in a letter to The Times: "I am not complaining about the film. I enjoyed it and thought it very well made."

His criticism was echoed by Labour MP Keith Vaz, who will not be taking his 11-year-old daughter. He said: "There are scenes of gratuitous violence."

The BBFC said the movie was at the upper limit of the 12A category and claimed the violence was more acceptable because it was a superhero film.