About

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was a short-lived comedy television series created by Richard Ayodade and Matthew Holness. The show stars Holness as the titular Marenghi, a fictional, arrogant horror writer who created a television show, "Darkplace," that "only aired in Peru" after it was made but is being re-released with commentary from the cast. Though the cast all talks as if the series was a brilliant, unknown gem, it is clearly marred by poor acting and special effects. Though Garth Marenghi's Darkplace only released six episodes over the span of a month in 2004, it maintained a cult following online. It was added to Amazon streaming services in 2021.

History

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was created by Richard Ayodade and Matthew Holness, and aired six episodes from January 29th, 2004 to March 4th, 2004.^[1] The series stars Holness as Garth Marenghi, who in the fictional television show "Darkplace," plays Dr. Rick Dagless M.D., a loose cannon Doctor who deals with the various paranormal goings-on in Darkplace Hospital. Richard Ayodade plays Dean Learner, Marenghi's publisher, who plays Thornton Reed within the world of "Darkplace." Learner's acting as Reed is intentionally the weakest among the cast, leading him to awkwardly stumble through tough-guy lines. Matthew Berry plays actor Todd Rivers, who plays Dr. Lucien Sanchez in "Darkplace," and in contrast to Learner, is constantly overacting. Alice Lowe stars as Madeleine Wool, an actress who plays Dr. Liz Asher in "Darkplace," and mostly serves as the butt of jokes between the chauvinist cast (compilation of clips from the show uploaded by Channel 4 Comedy shown below).

The show was released on DVD in 2006, with the cast giving additional, uncut commentary on the show and the episodes while in character. Alice Lowe does not appear in the commentary, as the cast alludes to her character being "missing, presumed dead." These were later uploaded to YouTube by Billikillerz (shown below).

Online Presence

The series maintained a cult following online in the years since its release. A public Facebook^[2] fan group for the show has over 12,900 subscribers. A subreddit^[3] for the show created December 10th, 2011 has over 1,200 subscribers. The show has seen many clips grow popular on YouTube. For example, a clip of Dr. Lucien Sanchez reading the line, "You and he were buddies, weren't you?" uploaded by jellyfishslapper has gained over 1 million views in ten years (shown below, left). A musical number from the show, "One Track Lover," has been uploaded to YouTube multiple times (shown below, right).

Additionally, the full series is available on YouTube. The first episode, also uploaded by Billikillerz, has over 1.2 million views (shown below).

An image macro of Marenghi saying, "I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards," has seen use as a reaction image and snowclone on social media (shown below).

Search Interest

External References