Garth Marenghi's Darkplace


Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a British horror parody television series created for Channel 4 by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness. The show focuses on fictional horror author Garth Marenghi and his publisher Dean Learner, characters who originated in the Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight stage show.
Darkplace is presented as a lost classic: a television series produced in the 1980s, though not broadcast at the time. The presentation features commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as Marenghi and Learner reflect on making the show. Darkplace parodies the fashion, special effects, production gaffes, and music of low-budget '80s television, as well as the modern practice of including commentary tracks on DVD releases of old films and television shows.
Darkplace was broadcast in a late-night timeslot, with very little advertising, and met with poor viewing figures. It nonetheless built up a significant internet following, leading Channel 4 to repeat the series and produce a DVD release. In 2005, Channel 4's Film Four asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a movie version of their programme.
The show was later broadcast in the United States on the Sci-Fi Channel and Adult Swim.

Show overview

The spoof comedy series, released in 2004, lampoons 1980s television drama, particularly horror, sci-fi, and "the rampant egotism of self-appointed 'mastermind' authors." The show presents Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as though it were a real, low-budget television series, produced in the 1980s, and now getting its first screening, framed as part of a director's commentary series. Darkplaces fictional show-within-a-show includes deliberately poor production and special effects, sub-par acting, choppy editing and storylines that are "severely flawed and open-ended". This is interspersed with present-day interviews with the cast.
The series' fictional premise is that some time in the 1980s, best-selling horror author Garth Marenghi and his publisher/publicist, Dean Learner, made their own low-budget television series with a single intent: "to change the evolutionary course of Man over a series of half-hour episodes." Set in Darkplace Hospital, "over the very gates of Hell", in Romford, London, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace shows the adventures of Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D., as he fights the forces of darkness while simultaneously coping with the pressures of "day to day admin." Within this fictional context, Marenghi wrote 63 teleplays from which 50 shows were produced; however, Channel 4 was eventually forced to reject the show due to its "radicality", though Marenghi also cites possible government suppression: "MI8, which is actually three levels above MI6, pulled the plug. And they did it because I knew the truth."
In 2004, due to the "worst artistic drought in broadcast history", Channel 4 decided to air six of the original episodes.
The makers of Darkplace endeavoured to make the show seem authentic. From "the retro Channel 4 logo at the start to the distortion of the analogue music track at the start of scenes", "the fashion,... the texture of film stock," " deliberately poor continuity, cheesy lines, wooden acting and cheap special effects"; it is delivered "in such a pitch perfect way you can't help but laugh." Also included are "present-day interviews", in which the character "Marenghi", with co-stars "Dean Learner" and "Todd Rivers", comment on the show-within-the-show. The interview segments further reveal the delusional and self-absorbed attitudes of Marenghi and Learner.
As with promotion for their earlier Perrier Award-winning stage show, the official website speaks of Garth Marenghi, and other characters as though they were real people, while making no mention of the real actors. Press releases also contained "realistic looking fake back stories for Marenghi and the other characters instead of making any mention of what the real cast have appeared in", and an article by "Garth Marenghi" appeared in The Daily Telegraph discussing his "groundbreaking television series". "More than a few" people and media outlets were caught out by this fictional framing.
The show's musical soundtrack parodies the same subjects as the writing, and gained its composer Andrew Hewitt a BAFTA Nomination as Best New Composer for Film and T.V..

Characters

A few other actors have recurring roles in the show-within-the-show: Kim Noble appears in every episode as Jim, a hospital worker whose main function is to listen to Dagless reel off a lengthy speech and respond with a "yes" or other monosyllabic reply, and Noble's real comedy partner Stuart Silver appears as "The Extra": a character whose name is unknown and has been a doctor, receptionist, keyboard soloist and barman. Julian Barratt also appears in three episodes as the hospital's vicar, whom Dagless refers to as "Padre". Graham Linehan and Stephen Merchant appear twice as the hospital porter and chef respectively. Noel Fielding appears as a mutant "Ape-oid" in Episode 4, "The Apes of Wrath".

Episodes

This list is ordered by the original air dates on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

Broadcasts

Darkplace originally aired in 2004. Only one series was produced. There is media speculation that the "average" or "poor" viewing figures led Channel 4 to decide against commissioning a second series. Channel 4 started a re-run of the series in October 2006 and released the show on DVD in the same month, while allowing the show to be re-broadcast on Virgin Media's On-demand service. In 2005, it was reported that the channel's cinema division, Film Four, had asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a film version of their programme.
On 27 July 2006, Darkplace made its U.S. debut on the Sci-Fi Channel.
The series had a spin-off, the spoof chat show Man to Man with Dean Learner, which began on 20 October 2006 on Channel 4. Dean's first guest was Garth Marenghi. During the interview with Garth a clip from the supposedly forthcoming movie War of the Wasps is aired, again featuring Dean Learner and his acting ability. Marenghi would also appear on the final episode of the series, which featured a clip from a video nasty that Garth and Dean had supposedly produced, which featured cameos from various Darkplace cast members.
Darkplace is available to watch on All 4 and was screened on UK Gold in January 2016.

DVD

The complete series was released on DVD on 16 October 2006, including the following special features:
The cover of the DVD also features a play on the DVD logo, which instead reads "DEANVD".
Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade reprise their roles as Garth Marenghi and Dean Learner in Man to Man with Dean Learner, which is also available on DVD.