Katana VentraIP

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a British horror parody television series created by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness for Channel 4. The show focuses on fictional horror author Garth Marenghi (played by Holness) and his publisher Dean Learner (played by Ayoade), characters who originated in the stage show Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight.

"Dark Place" redirects here. For the 2019 Australian horror anthology film, see Dark Place (film).

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

  • Richard Ayoade
  • Matthew Holness

Richard Ayoade

Andrew Hewitt

United Kingdom

1

6 (list of episodes)

Charlie Hanson

25 minutes

Channel 4

29 January (2004-01-29) –
4 March 2004 (2004-03-04)

The series is presented as a special release of the fictional television series Darkplace. Within the reality of the show, Darkplace was produced in the 1980s for Channel 4, but never broadcast anywhere but Peru, eventually becoming a lost series. Saved footage has recently resurfaced, with Marenghi republishing with the intent of gaining interest from a modern audience. The "original footage" of the show is intercut or bookended with commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as Marenghi and Learner reflect on what it was like to make the show. Darkplace parodies the fashion, special effects, production gaffes, and music of low-budget '80s television, as well as the arrogant attitude of certain writers and performers.


Darkplace was broadcast in a late-night timeslot, with very little advertising, and met with poor viewing figures.[1] It built up a significant internet following, leading Channel 4 to repeat the series and produce a DVD release. In 2005, Channel 4's Film4 asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a film version of the series,[2] but the project never saw further development.


The show was later broadcast in the United States on the Sci-Fi Channel and Adult Swim[1] and is available to stream on Peacock.

as Garth Marenghi, "author, dream weaver, visionary, plus actor", who plays Dr Rick Dagless, M.D.: 'Dag' is a Vietnam and Falklands War veteran and former warlock. His accent is pitched somewhere between Kent and boring. He keeps a Magnum revolver on him at all times. His wife is played by Lydia Fox.

Matthew Holness

as Dean Learner, Garth's publisher, who plays Thornton Reed, a hospital administrator who bears a trademark shotgun and answers to unseen hospital boss "Won Ton". Learner's acting is especially bad even by the standards of the series, which is remarked upon in some of the in-character cast interviews. Ayoade himself stated in an interview in the Scottish Metro that "My acting really is that shit. I'm not pretending". The character Reed was in the Korean War, in which he lost a testicle (and a knee) and became a POW.

Richard Ayoade

as Todd Rivers, an actor who plays Dr Lucien Sanchez: Improbably handsome with the disconcerting habit of losing lip-synch, "impossibly coiffured hair", and a voice an octave lower than it should be. He generally uses an automatic pistol (with a backup in a leg holster in case his original turns on him). He served with Dag in Vietnam. Most of Todd Rivers's lines are looped in, with Matt Berry seemingly providing the most off-sync and over-the-top readings possible. The DVD commentary has Todd seemingly the only actor who realizes how terrible the show was and the first time watching it in years.

Matt Berry

as Madeleine Wool, an actress who plays Dr Liz Asher: a stereotypical fluffy blonde with occasional psychic powers (sometimes exacerbated by heightened emotion). Asher graduated from "Harvard College Yale", acing all her classes and getting an A. Madeleine Wool has disappeared since the making of the programme. It is implied through the in-character episode commentaries that Dean had something to do with her disappearance and claims she is probably dead and "buried in the Eastern Bloc – if she got a burial".

Alice Lowe

A few other (real) 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".

Reception[edit]

Rotten Tomatoes gives the series an 86% rating based on reviews from 22 critics.[12]

Broadcasts[edit]

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.[3][13] 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.[14] 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.[2]


On 27 July 2006, Darkplace made its U.S. debut on the Sci-Fi Channel.[13]


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 shown, 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.


As of 2022 Darkplace is available to watch on All 4 (Channel 4's free streaming service) and BritBox, and was screened on UK Gold in January 2016. In the United States it is available on Amazon Prime and Pluto TV.

Commentaries on all episodes in which the cast stay in character as Garth, Dean and Todd (Lowe is absent as Madeleine Wool was established in the series as being missing presumed dead for decades)

A and test footage (both staged deliberately for DVD purposes)

deleted scene

Original "One Track Lover" single (extended version), along with the Darkplace theme and three "Darkplace Moodscapes" by composer Stig Baasvik (in reality the composer is BAFTA award-winning Andrew Hewitt)

Over an hour of extra talking heads

Photograph galleries (staged deliberately for DVD purposes)

Original radio ads

Original storyboards and storyboard-to-scene comparisons

An "" (containing bonus footage) accessible by selecting, and then fast-forwarding, the "Colour Bars" feature in the set-up menu

easter egg

An easter egg of the entire television soundtrack; this can be accessed by either clicking on the picture of Liz Asher in the setting menu (this method works only if you are watching the DVD on a PC), or selecting One Track Lover to listen to and pressing "previous", or by using your DVD player's "Go to Title" feature and then entering the title number 19. The soundtrack is approximately thirty-eight minutes, and is divided into twenty-four chapters.

The complete series was released on DVD (PAL, region 2 only) 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".


Holness and Ayoade reprise their roles as Garth and Dean in Man to Man with Dean Learner, which is also available on DVD.

at Channel4.com

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

at IMDb

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace