Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is for those with a love of dodgy horror and great comedy, which I see as a truly winning combination. Marenghi also guests in the first episode of Dean Learner's talk series, Man to Man with Dean Learner, where he reveals that he lost an ear in an ambulance crash, has written a total of 436 books, and has filmed a new movie, War of the Wasps, featuring most of the cast of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. This and the stellar comedic cast make it one to watch and as there's sadly only one season of it, there's not much of it to get through. Embracing the violence of schlocky B-Movies and its surreal premise, the show really revels in how silly it is. It also features Matt Berry and Alice Lowe who round off the team of doctors who must protect Darkplace Hospital from paranormal goings on. Holmes plays the spoof horror writer while Ayoade plays both his agent and within the show the hospital administrator Thornton Reed. Co-created by Matthew Holmes and Richard Ayoade, it was adapted from their Perrier award winning stage show Garth Marenghi's Netherhead. It's deliberately rubbish, doesn't make a great deal of sense but it's far and away one of the funniest comedies I've seen.
It's set up as an unaired series from the mind of the eponymous fictional writer, each episode bookended by a little nonsensical monologue or an extract from one of his books. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace Venturing into the surreal we go with Garth Marenghi's Darkplace leading the way. The set is shoddy and falls apart on camera, the editing is all over the place with various props popping up without explanation, and the characters are less than qualified actors.4. The sound design is also wonky as hell, particularly with Rivers’ consistent off-synch dialogue.
The show suggests that she is possibly dead and one of the men are responsible for her disappearance, but we never find out the full truth. And Matt Berry playing actor Todd Rivers playing Dr. The characters are all staff at the hospital, including Holness playing author/actor/director Garth Marenghi playing Dr. One example is with the commentary tracks, in which everyone but Wool provides interviews. There’s a hospital that was built over a pit to hell. The show is filled with plot holes and unresolved conflicts that are never brought up again. After working briefly in advertising, a 25-year-old Garth published Slicer, a book about. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is a parody in every sense of the word. Garth Marenghi is a cult horror novelist, and the creator of Darkplace. “Garth Marenghi? Doesn’t he write that horror crap?” The title sequence begins, first with a parody of The Twilight Zone and then jovial, sitcom-styled opening credits. Strange things happen here men give birth to giant eyeballs, humans turn into vegetables, a doctor can see into the future, the portal to hell is opened more than once.Įach episode begins with Marenghi reading a paragraph from one of his books, followed by a self-praising, bombastic monologue. The hospital located directly above hell.ĭarkplace tells the story of four doctors working in Darkplace Hospital, a building located directly above hell.
It is a show of soap opera styled filming, 80’s horror themes, and narcissistic artists.
Starring alongside the two men are Todd Rivers (Matt Berry) and Madeleine Wool (Alice Lowe).
The show features Marenghi, a self-proclaimed “author, dream weaver, visionary, plus actor,” and his publisher, Learner. It was a show-within-a-show, in which the characters Garth Marenghi (Matthew Holness) and Dean Learner (Richard Ayoade) filmed commentary tracks on their show Darkplace. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace was a 2004 British horror comedy series that aired on Channel 4 for six 30-minute episodes. Who is Garth Marenghi and what is Darkplace? (Does this mean the show laid the grounds for the foundation of our romantic relationship? Probably not, but possibly yes.) My boyfriend showed me Garth Meringhi’s Darkplace a year before we started dating and I loved everything about it, it is one of my favorite things I’ve watched. I guess I’ll say it: fantastic and criminally underrated.
Somewhere, deep in the crevice of your little soul, you knew that you needed to learn (or be reminded of) a show that is – dare I say it? So many people have said it. When you clicked on this article about Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, it was no accident.