So, if you know your movies, the title quote is from... yeah, you guessed it, The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the crazy clown has shaken the world of movies. It shows that a character can be turned into an icon during 153 minutes of filming.

This blog will review new movies coming out in the cinema but I will also have a Classic SOS ('Salt or Sweet' to the confused) review that will look at movies that you must see before you die! And I mean, must see!

So I hope you will enjoy this blog and I look forward to writing it!

by Alan Watkins

he Mayor of Medway has cost local council taxpayers £150,000. But is it so shocking?

Looking at the figures unearthed by the Labour councillors it’s not too surprising.

Whether you think it is right the mayoral office exists at all is more relevant.

According to the miffed opposition, the bill breaks down as staff (£74,000), another £24,000 went on parties and events, £1,200 on ceremonial clothes and £12,000 so far on his chauffeur-driven car.

These days the mayor is no more than a symbol. But he does an important job – one that goes back more than 400 years.

He is the Queen’s representative, the first citizen of the borough. He’s the meeter and greeter of the council and chairs their often acrimonious meetings.

Some mayors can be self-important prigs, others hard-working servants of an authority that needs to wave the flag. All raise a lot of cash for local charities.

Those staffing costs are reasonable.

There’s a secretary plus three officers that need to be on hand at different times when he is on duty. Then there’s things like computers, phones, cleaners, paper, postage and photocopying.

The cash spent on parties and events is a bit of Medway cheap-skating, to be honest.

Take out cleaning, repairs, room rental (well, someone has to meet the cost so why not the mayor?), hired waiters and maids, cooking and preparing everything from petits fours to biscuits you can forget the pate de foie gras.

The days of a roast swan with all the trimmings were long gone even before I got involved with events as a cub reporter. So £24,000 seems to cover a fair number of stale biscuits!

Ceremonial clothing costs are questionable.

One mayor whose name I have since forgotten spent more than four hundred quid on a fancy hat with black plumes. There were no queries from the politicians then: it was left to the Medway Messenger to uncover the truth.

The lady was never seen in it after its debut at the mayor-making ceremony. (She did look as though she was auditioning for a bit part in an Edwardian drama though).

Do we actually need our mayors to appear in flowing fancy dress? – No. Should they dress up at all? – Definitely. It’s a visible sign of their office (along with the civic chain).

It’s a tradition as important as Queens, uniformed soldiers and bewigged judges. Our outgoing, machismo mayor, Vaughan Hewett is one of the modern breed of Tory councillors.

He’s ideally suited as figurehead, chairer of meetings and shaker of hands.

The question is, will he gain a position of importance within the council now that his year has come to an end.

Or will he be one of the numerous Conservative cast-offs – which seems to happen to most of this council’s civic “leaders”.

Labour councillors are annoyed because they are being barred again from holding the civic office. Fair or not, it is politics.

Would Labour ever allow the Tories to hold office in future if they gain overall control of the council?

Meanwhile, their task should be holding the administration to account. I see little sign of that.

I want to start this week’s column by saying a huge thank you to everyone who jumped on board with our Go Dotty charity events!

They started in Gillingham, and have been taking place in Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and Maidstone, finishing at Demelza's site in Sittingbourne last Friday. kmfm teamed up with Demelza children’s hospice to hold 10 tea parties in 10 days around the county.

Visitors were able to enjoy some tea and delicious cake while watching some great live entertainment, with a special appearance by Little Miss Dotty at some of the events.

We don't know how much has been raised yet, but all funds will be going to Demelza, a very worthy cause. 

To find out more about Demelza visit www.demelza.org.uk

We work very hard here at kmfm, so now and then I like to let my hair down and enjoy a fun girlie night out with my friends.

I have suggested for our next outing we might go and see a saucy new show coming to the Churchill Theatre in Bromley next week – The Dreamboys.

I haven’t ever seen a ‘male glamour’ show before, so now the hunks are coming to Kent, it seems like the perfect opportunity! What would be your top suggestions for a girlie evening out in Kent? Email me at kmfmbreakfast@thekmgroup.co.uk

The KM Group brings the people of Kent important news about housing developments, council decisions, murders and schooling issues.

Yet when Peter Andre arrives, our website, Facebook page and Twitter accounts go into meltdown.

Is it not a sad indictment of our society that readers are most engaged with their local media when they are on the hunt for a minor celebrity?

Last week's Herne Bay Gazette included five pages of coverage of the draft Local Plan, to a modest reception.

If approved it could mean nearly 3,000 houses are built around the town. It received a respectable 23 comments on the Gazette Facebook page in its first day, although after a week it had not been shared once.

In less than 24 hours, the Gazette’s story on Peter Andre had been shared 82 times.

That is not to mention the countless photos and videos posted, depicting a tiny figure in the distance or an orange blur sweeping past rain-soaked fans.

As scores of people gathered to try and catch a glimpse of the reality TV ‘star’, no one questioned whether it was worth all this fuss for a bloke whose biggest – and only – hit single came out in 1995.

For heaven’s sake, he stayed at the Premier Inn. Some perspective, please.

Unlike many, politicians have to re-apply for their jobs every four or five years and the decision about whether they should be re-appointed is in the hands of voters.

And voters can be rather unpredictable and prone to switch allegiances, as the recent county council election showed rather dramatically.

So, we should not be surprised that a number of Conservative backbenchers in the county voted last night for the 'rebel' amendment on the Queen's Speech.

There is nothing like a bruising mid-term electoral lashing to concentrate the mind and the Kent MPs who backed the amendment no doubt had given careful consideration to the dramatic UKIP surge in the county council election.

So, this was a convenient way of sending a message to the electorate that they are as sceptical about Europe as any UKIP candidate who might be on the ballot paper in 2015.

Their decision to blow a raspberry at Mr Cameron will prove particularly helpful in election literature to post through doors in a couple of years.

Conservative backbenchers in Kent know that the issue of Europe is not going to go away. Those who knocked on doorsteps during the recent election campaign found that Britain's membership of the EU and immigration were often not far from voters' thoughts.

While UKIP is unlikely to win Parliamentary seats at the next election, that is not the point. It is whether UKIP will cost them votes in sufficient numbers to lose them their seats.

Marginal seats like those in the Medway Towns, north Kent and Thanet have switched between Labour and the Conservatives over recent years and if there is one thing that current MPs fear it is that a split in the vote for the right will allow Labour back in.

Whether UKIP's surge will be durable is, of course, open to question.

But if the results of the recent election showed anything, it is that voters are deeply cynical about commitments made for some time in the future - and particularly cynical about promises to do things after the election.

MPs who backed the rebel EU amendment understood this. It might be considered gesture politics but it is inconceivable that they did not make a calculated decision that it was worth putting a marker down now - even if the election is two years away.

Hands up if you’re having a good time? Well, don’t expect me to be waving my arms in the air, not because I’m in a miserable mood, but I’ll be lucky if I can lift a mug of tea today.

I’ve spent most of the weekend up a ladder, either scraping years-old paint off what seemed like miles of wood, or putting paint back on.

The lychgate to our church was built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, so we thought it would be a good idea to repaint to to mark Queen Elizabeth’s.

It took a while to get all the necessary permissions and grants and by the time they were all in place, winter had set in.

This weekend was the first time everybody could get together in decent weather and a small army set to work.

Armed with scrapers, ladders, goggles, sanders, hot air torches and plenty of enthusiasm, we started stripping the paint.

The idea was that we’d have all the prep work done by mid-afternoon, get some undercoat on, and then paint proper on Sunday.

For a small gate, there was a lot of paint to scrape off.

I was put in charge of one of the hot-air guns, which was going well until Hubby pointed out I’d set light to a tiny bit of moss. I spent the rest of the afternoon checking the roof to make sure it wasn’t alight.

By mid-afternoon, we’d got the worst of it off, but there was clearly a long way to go. An executive decision was taken to scrape the rest of the worst bits and sand down the rest.

On Sunday morning, we started again, and at least by the end of the day, there was some paint back on the gate.

But guess what we’ll be doing next weekend?

This weekend's episode of Doctor Who features the Cybermen.

It's written by Neil Gaiman, responsible for The Doctor's Wife a few years ago, where the TARDIS became a woman and the Doctor got all weepy about it. I cried a bit too, so what?

Hedgewick’s World of Wonders, where it's set, was once the greatest theme park in the universe - though it looks like Margate's Dreamland at the moment.

It’s now the dilapidated home of a showman, a chess-playing dwarf and an army platoon led by a woman from EastEnders. 

That's the premise. The scenario if you prefer. 

When the Doctor, Clara, and annoying children and terrible actors Artie and Angie arrive, the last thing they expect is the Cybermen and a boring story. 

Though if they'd seen the poster for this episode, they'd have known (it's got Cybermen on it, see below).

I wish I was heaping praise on it, but it's not great. It's not terrible of course, just not "wow, I need to go to the toilet, that was so good".

Perhaps that's because of the brilliance of Gaiman's previous episode and my expectations being higher than the sun. 

The Doctor spends most of his time playing chess. The Cybermen, supposedly frightening this time round, are as scary as a moth in the window.

And not even a cybernetic moth with lasers and that. 

Chess, by the way, was a plot device in one of Sylvester McCoy's old episodes from the 1980s. That made about as much sense then as it does now.

I think chess is meant to show the Doctor is clever, a plot point as yet unexplored in 50 years. 

In other news: Another ridiculous idea in the classic series rears its shiny head again - though we do see all 11 Doctors, which is nice - especially as we're told we won't during the anniversary episode. 

I'm sorry I sound so down on it actually. I don't want to, but it felt a bit flat.

Maybe I'm being mean because I accidentally cooked my steak in a frying pan that still had Fairy liquid in it last night. 

It looks nice though - the episode, not my steak. The Cybermen redesign is snazzy, like a striped blazer, and they are quite cunning and can move fast. 

There's just not enough Cyber action going on. That's the problem. There's lots of Matt Smith talking to himself about how clever he is though. 

Everyone's favourite Ewok Warwick Davies stars, but doesn't have much to sink his teeth into as he did when he was a leprechaun. 

Nightmare in Silver is on BBC One on Saturday (May 11) at 7pm. 

County Hall is a febrile place just now after the dust settles on the election that saw the ruling Conservatives come within a whisker of losing control. UKIP has confirmed its leader will be Roger Lachford, the former Conservative deputy leader of Thanet council.

But there are developments involving the other parties, too:

A Conservative cabinet reshuffle is underway and is expected to be officially announced later today.  Leader  Paul Carter has been forced to rejig his top team after the defeat of education cabinet member Mike Whiting. If my sources are correct, that job will go to the well-regarded Cllr Roger Gough, who interestingly is a Sevenoaks councillor and will take control of the council's efforts to open a new grammar school annexe in the area.

One of his key tasks will be to win over Michael Gove who for some reason many Conservatives find hard to fathom has stuck his oar in and decided the site Kent wants should be offered to a free school instead.

After the election hammering, Gove may just be open to the idea that it might not be such a bad thing to be seen to be supporting the scheme, given the fact that UKIP now seems more enthusiastic about selection than the national Conservative party.

The other change likely is that Cllr John Simmonds, who has the finance portfolio, will take on the job of being deputy leader, replacing the long-serving Tunbridge Wells councillor Alex King. Another interesting move (he will retain the finance job) and a sign of complete rapprochement between the two. We don't yet know why Alex King has gone but he has been in hospital with a fractured leg.

Over in the Labour camp and an unexpected leadership contest is looming. Cllr Mike Eddy, who regained the seat he lost in 2009 and was the former opposition leader before the party's meltdown is to challenge Gordon Cowan for the job of leadng the 13-strong group.

He says he has "unfinished business" but denies his bid for the role implies he feels that the party under-performed at the election, having forecast that it could capture 20 seats.

It will be interesting to see if any other names enter he fray - there is some suggestion that Cllr Roger Truelove, returned to Swale Central, could throw his hat in the ring. I am not sure a leadership contest is exactly what Labour need just now.

It might give the impression they are a divided group and it could be better to wait and see how UKIP acquits itself as a formal opposition group.

They say that the best things in life are free. So when the chance arises to see four award winning rock bands who have flown all the way from South Korea to melt the faces of the good people of the UK, and all without spending a hard-earned penny, only a fool would choose to stay at home,sinking into the bottom-shaped groove in their favourite chair, wandering what could have happened that night at Camden’s Barfly…

The first band arrives on stage. Long hair conceals the faces of the mysterious men, as they stand superior and unmoving, towering over an eager audience. After tearing through several brutal and fearsome original numbers, the sheer power and volume of which could quite easily erode the skin from the face, Daeinn Kim on bass screams “we are Apollo 18 and we are a f***ing Korean indie band!” There is never a pause for the noise, when the band aren’t parading the stage and punishing their instruments and the venue’s speaker system, their instruments squeal and shriek with enmity and hostility. Apollo 18’s mostly instrumental blend of metal, with occasional screams from Kim and Hyunseok Choi, guitar, trembles the foundations of the room with raw power. The set finale, ‘Warm’, is the only slow number of the set, and builds into a spine-tingling instrumental that leaves the audience astounded at the mix of beauty and aggression three men can create.

Next on the bill are Galaxy Express. Galaxy Express have the stage presence of rock gods and are a rare example of a band that have the ability to turn a quick sound check into an audience participation, exchanging a series of back-and-forths with the crowd, building them into ferocious excitement. The band deliver a breed of melodic metal tunes with sing-along choruses; they do love a good “woah woah woah” section and so do their audience who have by now realised what an absolute steal this gig has already been. During a set of madness and mayhem, heads are banged, feet are stomped, eyes are widened in a ‘rock-and-roll psychopath’ manor, guitars are thrust into the faces of the front row while mind-bending solos squeal through the room- the Townshend speciality ‘windmill’move is even featured in the climax of the set. Galaxy Express are extraordinary showmen and even better songwriters. What a half hour!

Time for a slight change in tempo. Goonam, a reggae and ska infused psychedelic indie band, enter the stage. Fronted by Ung Joh, vocals and guitar, and Byunghak Eem, bass guitar, vocals, and possibly the jolliest man in the world, create a sound of Beatles-like melodies, dancy reggae guitars and mesmerising keyboards,created by a band of natural charisma and energy. Joh, in thick glasses, a tightly buttoned shirt and a bowl-cutted head becomes a guitar legend when he feels the tingle of a solo fall upon him; Eem remains unfathomably jolly, beaming away at each individual member of the audience and bobbing his head like an extremely merry pigeon. This feeling of ease and happiness is combined with occasional energetic screams from Joh and scrappy, messy guitar hooks, giving Goonam an occasional punky sound in amongst the psychedelic haze of summery, feel-good melodies. It is impossible not to be enticed by the beauty of Goonam’s sound and the range of styles they produce- get these guys at an English summer festival and they will be hailed as heroes.

Final act of the night, Gate Flowers deliver an intense experience of the most potent metal imaginable. Singer, Keunhong Park transitions between growling, vicious screams and high-pitched squeals creating an almost surreal sound. At times Bak takes the grizzly aggression of an Iggy Pop-like vocal, while the instrumental rings with classic rock riffs and ruthless drums. After roaring out a set of insanely powerful and impactive originals, the band reveal that “since it’s the 50th anniversary of a great rock and roll band”, they tear into a cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’. The crowd shrieks with excitement and the band completely transform the song into their own sinister blend of rock and roll,and manage to do real justice to such an iconic tune. Gate Flowers send the crowd home with adrenaline still in the blood and ringing still in the ears.

Korea can rest assured that the message of their ever-growing music scene has been well and truly spread. After an extensive UK tour, these four supremely talented bands will surely find themselves a whole host of newly converted British fans.