Watch any film or TV show and it’ll be abundantly clear that bad guys are all around. So it is best to know how to spot them.

How to Be a Hero is a new play, written and performed by theatre company White Rabbit, which gets its world premiere at Deptford’s The Albany on Wednesday (September 16).

Inspired by the phenomena of real life vigilantes, it includes real stories of heroism from Deptford and beyond, while telling the story of a fictional vigilante group called Gamma Guild.

The dark comedy features karaoke, pepper spray, amateur judo techniques, a fearless cockapoo and tips on how to spot a villain.

With that in mind, we asked White Rabbit’s Bernadette Russell what her research turned up about how you can identify a bad guy.

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Scars

A good example is the Joker in the Dark Knight and, seemingly in the new Suicide Squad snippets recently released. If someone’s got a scar, it might have been due to fighting, said Bernadette.

“Hannibal Lector has a scar,” she said. “They should have guessed he'd be eating them for dinner.”

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Slicked back hair

“A good example is Michael Douglas in Wall Street. In fact, most baddies from 80s films. Also Hannibal Lector again.”

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Facial hair

Ok, so not every hipster is a baddie but hairiness can equal manliness or toughness, which is a key bad guy attribute. A beard can also indicate someone who has gone a bit wild or to seed, Bernadette said.

Bearded baddies include Superman’s nemesis General Zod, Mugatu in Zoolander, Hugo Drax in Moonraker, Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Jafar in Aladdin.

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Tattoos

“Tattoos tell us that someone is either living hard on the streets or a suburbanite making bad drunken mistakes.”

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Bad lungs

“Of all the physical ailments, terrible respiratory problems are the clearest indicators of badness,” said Bernadette. “The main reason is that there's symbolism in breath. If you've got air in your lungs, you're alive! You have animus, a soul.

“And when a character has audible lung problems, he's inevitably a villain, because his lungs - where his soul lives - are a corrupt environment. It's a great image, which is why Hollywood saves it for the big names like Darth Vader.”

How to Be a Hero is at The Albany in Deptford from Wednesday (September 16) to Saturday (September 19). Tickets cost £12 or £10 concessions. Go to thealbany.org.uk or call 020 8692 4446.