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Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: a 'lost classic'

It's hard to believe that Garth Marenghi's Darkplace first screened on Channel 4 a full 13 years ago.

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At its core, Darkplace is the ultimate lampoon of low-production-value paranormal horror shows.

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Rewind: "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" revisited

A decade after it originally aired, we take a look back at Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Channel 4's spoof of bad 80's horror television.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace was weird, but also truly original and brilliantly funny. A show-within-a-show, it saw Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade's popular Edinburgh Fringe character, the eponymous horror writer and egomaniac (played by Holness), present his fictional, never-aired TV show, intercut with interviews with cast and crew. It captured the spirit of hammy Eighties action shows, with acting and special effects appalling enough to make Ed Wood look like Steven Spielberg. Being aired late at night with very little advertising actually worked in the show's favour: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace became the true "lost classic" that Marenghi himself always proclaimed it to be.

The cast of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: 10 years on

What have Matthew Holness, Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe and Matt Berry been up to in the decade since Garth Marenghi's Darkplace?

The real comedic genius of the show is its sheer awfulness. The acting is purposely dreadful, the camera shots often stick from hilariously terrible angles that cut off half of people's heads, and firearms (including flame-throwers) appear from nowhere to supply needed explosive action.

What struck me as most humorous was the scripting, with unrealistic lines, bewildering trades of dialogue, and blatant fodder for Marenghi's character and his staggering ego. Plotlines are semi-sensical, stemming from interesting ideas such as telekinetic abilities and alien spores descending through clouds, but executed even worse than a Michael Bay movie.

I was watching [adult swim] on the Cartoon Network before bed the other night and came across a strange 80's style hospital show. I didn't know the name at the time but it seemed interesting for the simple reason that I've studied film and noticed how the editing was atrocious. At first I thought to myself God, what is this garbage. For some reason instead of nodding off to sleep I kept watching, and eventually sat up in bed shouting YEAH!!! THIS IS GREAT!!!

Darkplace offers a cool dose of unique entertainment value. It's the type of British show that begs for a cult following.

How do you rate a show that's deliberately attempting to be horrible? Yes, production values were low and the settings are bargain basement. Sure, the acting's atrocious on the same scale as a eigth-grade production of The King and I. It's true that you can see the wires holding 'floating' objects in the air. That being said, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace has so many levels of humor that you'll either immediately tune out or you'll laugh yourself unconscious and join the Darkplace cult of the horribly hilarious.