Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

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Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a cult comedy series made for Channel 4. Created by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade, it is a parody of the horror genre and revolves around the character of Garth Marenghi himself, a writer of pulp fiction played by Matthew Holness.

The series' premise is that in the mid-1980s, Garth Marenghi and his publisher Dean Learner made their own TV series on a shoestring budget. Set in Darkplace Hospital in Romford, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace tells of the adventures of Dr. Rick Dagless, MD, as he fights the forces of darkness while simultaneously coping with the pressures of running a modern hospital. In spite of the programme's obvious flaws - wooden acting, cringe-making scripts and amazingly poor special effects, to name but three - both Marenghi and Learner still regard the series as a masterpiece. But nobody else does, which is why it's taken nearly 20 years to reach the screen.

Of course, in reality the series is a deliberate send-up both of the horror genre and of 1980s TV production. Each episode also includes interview sections set in the present-day, in which Marenghi and his co-stars comment on the show-within-the-show, which provides an extra layer of character comedy. Matthew Holness had a cameo role in The Office and this may have been an influence on his use of talking heads. Action series such as The A-Team, The Sweeney and medical dramas from both sides of the Atlantic are also obvious influences, and the comedy relies partly on familiarity with such programmes (or at least, knowledge of their reputation).

The show's music soundtrack parodies the same subjects as the writing of Darkplace, and gained its composer Andrew Hewitt a BAFTA Nomination as Best New Composer for Film and TV - 2004.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The show's stars are:

Matthew Holness as Garth Marenghi, who plays Dr. Rick Dagless, MD
Richard Ayoade as Dean Learner, Garth's publisher, who plays Thornton Reed, a camp hospital administrator who bears a trademark shotgun and answers to Hospital boss "Wonton". He also has a habit of upstaging Garth.
Matt Berry as the actor Todd Rivers, who plays Dr. Lucien Sanchez, improbably handsome with the disconcerting habit of losing lip-synch, with coiffured hair, and a voice an octave lower than it should be.
Alice Lowe as actress Madeleine Wool, who plays Dr. Liz Asher, stereotypical fluffy blonde with occasional psychic powers (sometimes brought on by PMT). Madeleine Wool has disappeared in the time since the making of the programme.

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 simply to listen to Dagless reel off a lengthy speech and respond with a "yes" or other monosyllabic reply, and Julian Barratt appears in several episodes as the hospital's padre. Graham Linehan and Stephen Merchant also have minor recurring roles as the hospital porter and chef respectively. Noel Fielding also appears as the main ape in Episode 4.

Many of the show's jokes rely on the viewer recognising that the script reflects the views of the Garth Marenghi character, for example the characterisation of Dr. Asher as a frail woman liable to burst into tears at the slightest provocation, or the bizarre portrayal of the Scottish people in Scotch Mist. More jokes come from the fact that the script is a way for Marenghi to flex his own ego, as evidenced when Dr. Lucien Sanchez wishes he was "more attractive, like Dagless".

The episodes for Series One are as follows (all written by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade, and directed by Richard Ayoade):

Once Upon A Beginning - one of Dagless' old colleagues turns up on the wards, and all hell breaks loose - literally.
Hell Hath Fury - Inanimate objects come to life, endangering Dagless and his colleagues. But who is causing all these telekinetic events?
Skipper The Eye Child - the birth of a giant eyeball brings out paternal instincts in Dagless, but threatens to kill him.
The Apes Of Wrath - the hospital staff mysteriously turn into monkeys, including Dr Liz Asher.
Scotch Mist - a mysterious fog heralds the arrival of undead "Scotchmen" out to wreak revenge on Dagless. He must overcome his fear of Scottish cuisine to save the day.
The Creeping Moss From The Shores Of Shuggoth - a cosmic broccoli outbreak threatens to turn everyone into (iron-rich) vegetables. This episode may be influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos.

Darkplace originally aired in 2004 and viewing figures were fairly poor, which is possibly why a second series has not been commissioned by Channel 4. However, the channel's cinema division Film Four have asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a movie version of their programme, and it has gained quite a significant cult following. [1] Also to come is a long-awaited DVD of the first series; the production of which has been spurred on by the emergence of bootleg 'Darkplace' DVDs on internet auction sites. The following special features have been promised for the DVD to be released on July 3, 2006: