Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Front cover of DVD release
Created by	Richard Ayoade Matthew Holness
Written by	Richard Ayoade Matthew Holness
Directed by	Richard Ayoade
Starring	Richard Ayoade Matt Berry Matthew Holness Alice Lowe
Composer(s)	Andrew Hewitt
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Charlie Hanson
Running time	25 minutes (approx.)
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Original release	29 January – 4 March 2004
External links
Website

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a British horror parody television series created for Channel 4 by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness. The show focuses on fictional horror author Garth Marenghi (played by Holness) and his publisher Dean Learner (played by Ayoade), characters who originated in the Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight stage show.

Darkplace is presented as a lost classic: a television series produced in the 1980s, though never broadcast at the time. The presentation features commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as Marenghi and Learner reflect on making the show. Darkplace parodies the fashion, special effects, production gaffes, and music of low-budget '80s television, as well as the modern practice of including commentary tracks on DVD releases of old films and television shows.

Darkplace was broadcast in a late-night timeslot, with very little advertising, and met with poor viewing figures. It nonetheless built up a significant internet following, leading Channel 4 to repeat the series and produce a DVD release. In 2005, it was reported that Channel 4's Film Four had asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a movie version of their programme.

The show was later broadcast in the United States on the Sci-Fi Channel and Adult Swim.

The spoof comedy series, released in 2004, lampoons 1980s television drama, particularly horror, sci-fi, and "the rampant egotism of self-appointed 'mastermind' authors." The show presents Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as though it were a real, low-budget television series, produced in the 1980s, and now getting its first screening; this hoax is the show's fictional frame. Darkplace's fictional show-within-a-show includes deliberately poor production and special effects, sub-par acting, choppy editing and storylines that are "severely flawed and open-ended." This is interspersed with "present-day" interviews with the "cast."