Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

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Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Front cover of DVD release
Genre	Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction
Creator(s)	Matthew Holness Richard Ayoade
Starring	Matthew Holness Richard Ayoade Matt Berry Alice Lowe
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	25 minutes approx.
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Original run	29 January 2004 – 4 March 2004
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a 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.

1 Show synopsis
2 Characters
3 Concept
4 Episodes
5 Reaction
6 DVD
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Show synopsis

The premise of the series 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, cringeworthy 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. Action series such as The A-Team, The Sweeney, cult drama Twin Peaks and various American medical dramas are also obvious influences, and the comedy relies partly on familiarity with such programmes (or at least, knowledge of their reputation). More obscurely, Darkplace makes reference to Lars von Trier's "haunted hospital" TV series 'Kingdom' ('Riget' in Danish) which was later remade by Stephen King for an American audience as Kingdom Hospital, with arguably Marenghi-esque results. Much of the show could be taken as a parody of King's work (with the flying staplers and other deadly inanimate objects of Hell Hath Fury, for example, being a fairly direct parody of King's Maximum Overdrive and similar works), but while Darkplace might initially appear to be specifically based on Kingdom Hospital, Darkplace actually premiered several months before Kingdom, but not before the original Danish TV production, broadcast in 1994 (with a sequel in 1997).

The episodes themselves are given added authenticity by the title sequence being preceded by Channel 4's original Blocks ident.

Each episode of Darkplace 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. These commentaries are always performed by Marenghi himself, Learner (In Hell Hath Fury, Marenghi introduces Learner as one of the few involved with the production who hasn't "died, or offended me.") and Todd Rivers.

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).

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The cast of Darkplace, from left to right: Todd Rivers/Dr. Lucien Sanchez, Dean Learner/Thornton Reed, Garth Marenghi/Dr. Rick Dagless and Madeleine Wool/Dr. Liz Asher.

Matthew Holness as Garth Marenghi, who plays Dr. Rick Dagless, MD. Dag is a Vietnam and Falklands veteran and former warlock. He also keeps a Magnum revolver on him at all times.
Richard Ayoade as Dean Learner, Garth's publisher, who (utterly incompetently) plays Thornton Reed, a camp hospital administrator who bears a trademark shotgun and answers to Hospital boss "Won Ton". 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. He generally uses an automatic pistol (with a backup in a leg holster in case his original turns on him)
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 Noble's real-life comedy partner Stuart Silver appears a couple of times as the hospital's receptionist. Julian Barratt also appears in two episodes as the hospital's padre.

Graham Linehan and Stephen Merchant also have one-off roles as the hospital porter and chef respectively. Noel Fielding also appears as the main ape in Episode 4.

[edit] Concept

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" in Episode 6. Deliberate continuity errors, sloppy stagecraft/editing and bad acting are also constant comedic themes.

[edit] Episodes

Dean & Garth

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’s 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 Eyechild — 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. The episode title references aspects of the Cthulhu Mythos notably the "Fungi from Yuggoth". Includes the song "One track Lover" by "Todd Rivers".

[edit] Reaction

Darkplace originally aired in 2004 and, although popular with those who saw it, viewing figures were fairly poor, which is possibly why a second series has not been commissioned by Channel 4. However, it has gained quite a significant cult following through word of mouth and the internet, which lead to the series to be repeated and released on DVD so that a wider audience could enjoy it. Many fans felt the popularity of the inital run was affected by poor time placement and promotion by the station. Channel 4 started a long-awaited re-run of the series in October 2006 and released the show on DVD in the same month. The channel's cinema division Film Four have asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a movie version of their programme [1].

On July 27, 2006, Darkplace made its U.S. debut on Sci-Fi at 10 p.m. EST/PST. [2]

The series had a semi-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.

[edit] DVD

The complete series was released on DVD (PAL, Region 2 only) on 16 October 2006, including the following special features:

Commentaries on all episodes
A deleted scene
Test footage
Original ‘One Track Lover’ Single (Extended Version), along with the Darkplace Theme and three 'Darkplace Moodscapes' by composer Stig Baasvik
Over an hour of extra talking heads
Photo galleries
Original radio ads
Original storyboards and storyboard to scene comparisons
An 'easter egg' (containing bonus footage) accessible by selecting, and then fast-forwarding, the 'Colour Bars' feature in the set-up menu
The ENTIRE Darkplace television soundtrack; this can be accessed by either clicking on the picture of Liz Asher in the set-up menu (this method works only if you are watching the DVD on a PC), or by using your DVD player's 'Go to Title' feature and then entering the title number 19. The soundtrack is approximately 38 minutes long, and is divided into 24 chapters.

The DVD did fairly well by television DVD standards, reaching the top 10 best-selling DVDs at number 9 in the UK.