The BBC have posted an arti­cle from The Dark Knight’s pre­mière, cit­ing quotes from the cast and crew pay­ing trib­ute to the late heath Ledger and his per­for­mance as The Joker. (Video avail­able on the BBC site)

“It’s the best per­for­mance of a vil­lain I have seen. […] My feel­ing is that he will get a nom­i­na­tion, I would be very sur­prised if he didn’t get the Oscar — he has my vote any­way,” — Sir Michael Caine

“I haven’t seen a vil­lain like this, or a bad guy like this, since Den­nis Hop­per played Frank Booth in Blue Vel­vet — this out-scares Han­ni­bal Lecter.” — Gary Oldman

“What we wanted to do was cre­ate a vil­lain that’s iconic and ter­ri­fy­ing, I think, but also rec­og­niz­ably human. And I think Heath does that in a very inter­est­ing way — I think peo­ple are going to be blown away.” — Chris Nolan

“He’s cre­ated this anar­chic, Sid Vicious-like, punk rock Joker, unlike any Joker that’s been seen before. I think it’s a real clas­sic por­trayal that will be remem­bered for ages. It is tragic he is not here, but I am here to see his tal­ents and cel­e­brate it and I hope every­body will.” — Chris­t­ian Bale

“I’m so sad he’s not here with us and doing these inter­views right now, but we are going to hon­our him tonight.” — Aaron Eckhart