Plot

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a parody of 80s British TV horror set in Darkplace Hospital, it’s a bit unfortunate that Darkplace Hospital has been built upon a Hellmouth, and Doctor Rick Dagless, MD, is called into action to save countless lives. A man haunted by a dark past he is supported by no nonsense hospital director Thornton Reed, Todd Rivers plays the handsome karate kicking demon destroyer Lucien Sanchez and Madeline Wool as Doctor Liz Asher described a typically emotionally unstable women gifted with psychic powers.

The show is presented by the bestselling horror write Garth Marenghi, who according to the program introduction as a fabulist, a shaman, a ferryman and a Dreamweaver. Author of such horror classics as

• The Ooze (can water die?)
• The Ague (dare you sneeze?)
• Afterbirth (a placenta wants payback)
• Black Fang (rats learn to drive cars)

Doctor Rick Dagless (MD), battles the hordes of hell, red headed "Scotchmen" and haunted staplers. Time to do this and be a talented saxophonist?? How does he manage it?

It also features from the episode, the Apes of Wrath, one of the funniest high-speed chases ever committed to video, I could watch this over and over again! Watch it and have fun.

Cast

The cast of Darkplace runs like a who's who of subversive and quite frankly awesome UK comedy.

• Mathew Holness plays Garth Marenghi and Doctor Rick Dagless MD, it’s all part of the really clever show within a show structure they used to present this to us. Mathew won the Perrier comedy award in Edinburgh in 2001 for Garth Marenghi's Netherhead, how I wish I had seen that!

• Richard Ayoade as Dean Lerner, Garth's publisher and Thornton Reed Hospital Manager. Ayoade's performance as Moss in the IT Crowd is as funny a performance as you will ever see.

• Matt Berry, the legend, the man that is Matt Berry, you can also catch him in the sublime, Toast of London, and House of Fools with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Matt's rich deep baritone voice feels like soothing honey flowing into the ears...

• Alice Low plays Medline Wool and is know for other classic British and dark comedies, Sightseers, is one of the darkest comedies I have seen in a long time and she writes and directs the horror comedy Prevenge.

Other actors who make an appearance are the vastly talented Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh,

Graham Linehan writer and actor and director of the IT Crowd, Father Ted and Alan Partridge makes an appearance.

Review

I love the seriousness with which the fictional write Garth Marenghi presents Darkplace, this is quoted from the start of episode one,

"Greetings traveler. I'm Garth Marenghi, horror writer. Most of you will probably know me already from my extensive canon of chillers, including Afterbirth, in which a mutated placenta attacks Bristol. Back in the 1980s, I wrote, directed and starred in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a television program so radical, so risky, so dangerous, so goddamn crazy, that the so-called powers that be became too scared to show it, and gypped me. Much in the same way women have done ever since they sniffed out my money."

It's the programs faux serious tone that at once comes across as hilarious and tragic, the sets wobble, the video cuts at the wrong time, the dubbing is terrible, but it’s done with all the serious commitment that a bad horror writer would have for a project like this. It also likes to play with visual tropes in 80's programs of this ilk, the moral of the story at the end, the ability of the main Protagonist to play jazz on the roof of the hospital, the slightly ridiculous back story of the other characters that’s seen as plot development, Kung Fu skills, shirts and medallions, car journeys but done against a back back drop, haunted stapler, you name it and it's lampooned delightfully.

Episode one

Once upon a beginning establishes the events to come diabolical ceremonies performed in hospital basements, possessed and exploding patients and a vow to stop the coming horror...

Episode two

Hell hath Fury Inanimate objects begin flying about the hospital (haunted staplers) by themselves, and a three hour wait for a chicken meal in the canteen ends in terror for one member of staff. Supernatural forces are at work and only Doctor Rick Dagless MD can get to the bottom of it...

Episode three

Skipper the eye child After being attacked by an inhuman, cyclopean monstrosity a male patient births a freak eye child, Skipper the eye child...

Episode four

The Apes of Wrath staff and patients are falling ill and regressing to a primal, hilariously, monkey state, Only Rick Dagless MD is unaffected, can he stop this before it’s too late and the whole of Darkplace devolves into a state of simian fury...

Episode five

Scotch Mist a murky fog envelopes Darkplace, and from it step angry "scotch" ghosts hellbent on vengeance...Garth Marenghi challenges racism of all kinds in this episode, the establishment will be rocked with the message he sends out here about racism and all forms of discrimination, why though would thee vengeful ghosts be seeking retribution? recollections of being marooned in Glasgow and comments about a badly prepared meal may have the answer, but can Rick work out what to do before it’s too late?

Episode six

The Creeping Moss From the Shores of Shuggoth an unearthly green mist wafts through the vents and corridors of Darkplace Hospital, what can this mean for the staff and patients of Darkplace, love, death and cosmic broccoli...

Each episode is masterclass in the art of bad film making, shoddy sets, poor dialogue, nonsense stories, but done with a knowing wink and tongue planted firmly in cheek, the team behind this know what they were doing and it should really have had more series, one series was never enough. To make something this bad look this good Abd be as funny as it was and still is a masterful skill.

If you ever are lucky enough to get the DVD play it with the commentary, it adds so much to the program, and I wouldn’t have thought it possible but makes it even funnier.

Verdict

This is one of the cleverest missed opportunities that has been on television in a long time. The setup of the program is a show within a show, presented by a fictional horror writer Garth Marenghi, invention of the massively talented Mathew Holness, who as I stated earlier won the Perrier award for his show in Edinburgh, there were so many talented people involved here and every episode is watchable over and over again with quotes you can entertain people in the pub with time after time.

Quoted in this Guardian article he has these pearls of wisdom to impart,

• There's no such thing as writer's block. (But NEVER write anything until you've got the cash in your hand. I cannot stress this enough.)

• Don't employ actors. They cost money. Use friends or tradesmen.

• Work to your own limitations. Don't try and be as good as me. It ain't gonna happen. I was born like this.

• If inspiration flags, try copying the work of dead authors on whose work the copyright has lapsed. Shakespeare was a decent little writer, but if there had been plagiarism laws back then, anyone pre-17th century who owned a quill could have had the Bard's arse in a sling. So steal.

The shoe only ran for one series, personally I could never understand why it was cancelled till I read the word of the horror icon Garth Marenghi himself -
"The fact that Darkplace has not aired till now is a testament to its radicality. MI8, which is the one three levels above MI6 pulled the plug. Simple as. They were scared of what it would have done to people's minds. I have never forgiven those so-called government authorities for suppressing the truth I sought to express, and I'll be damned if it's gonna happen again"

Stirring words, that couldn’t have known that this sublime series would actually have only one series.

images courtest of google images
gifs courtesy of giphy
video courtesy of youtube