Comments on: Blood? Blood. His blood. Blood.

Blood? Blood. His blood. Blood.

kindle — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:27:35 -0800

Garth Marenghi (previously), horror writer, director, and actor. Star of the popular 80's series Darkplace which chronicles the trials a hospital staff must endure when working on the gates of Hell, now available for your viewing pleasure. Or pain. Gripping. Terrifying. Bloody. With bits of sick. (See more episodes on Google )

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:42:23 -0800

Awesome - excellent post.

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:05:57 -0800

He's smooooooth, like ice, cold to the touch and he isn't very nice!

By: Acey

Acey — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:06:35 -0800

DARKPLACE REVISITATUM: A PLAY IN ONE ACT BY GARTH MARENGHI

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:26:13 -0800

...known to thousands as the author of such classic chillers as The Ooze (can water die?), Afterbirth (a mutated placenta attacks Bristol) and Black Fang (rats learn to drive). Awesome. How have I never heard of this guy before?

By: travis08

travis08 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:27:09 -0800

I recommend that everyone purchase the DVD. I don't think it is released in the States yet, so you will need a region free DVD player. You can watch all off the episodes with commentaries of the actual actors(playing the characters who supposedly created the show) talking about the characters in the show. very good stuff

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:37:02 -0800

The Google vid discription: a funny british comedy taking the piss out of programs like murder she wrote Is there another Murder She Wrote?

By: The Tensor

The Tensor — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:49:10 -0800

Garth Marenghi...horror writer, director, and actor. Dude, don't edit perfection. It's "author, dream-weaver, visionary (plus actor)".

By: PontifexPrimus

PontifexPrimus — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:01:46 -0800

Oooh, I especially loved Hell Hath Fury with its casual mysogynism... and those scenes on the rooftop with their deep, emotional monologues... I really like how neatly Matthew Holness captures the kind of intensive writing that's so prevalent in some bad fiction. And those Dr.-Who-level effects! Just. Wonderful.

By: PontifexPrimus

PontifexPrimus — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:09:03 -0800

Misogynism, even. I knew I would misspell a word when writing about a show that makes fun of people who use "big words" to show off, yet only expose their own lack of eloquence.

By: rob511

rob511 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:24:03 -0800

Is there another Murder She Wrote? Partly, sage.

By: dorian

dorian — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:08:30 -0800

jayzus people, go to the source. google and youtube can diaf. someone 'splain to me again how some copyright violations are somehow less-bad than others? is it like that time it was ok to tell people to scam digicams from amazon 'cos matt told 'em to?

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:09:03 -0800

Awesome. How have I never heard of this guy before? My guess is because it's actually a faux-eighties drama from a couple of years ago.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:12:15 -0800

You think?

By: djgh

djgh — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:16:13 -0800

I think it's because YouTube shares revenue with various media companies. Could be wrong.

By: dorian

dorian — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:23:21 -0800

oh right the lawsuits. I had forgotten about that. sorries. *runs away*

By: verb

verb — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:23:40 -0800

Oh, man. A friend brought this DVD over just the other day on a whim and we spent the evening watching, laughing, slack-jawed with horror.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:42:09 -0800

Darkplace is glorious. The best is how each mistake - be it a technical mistake, a mistake in tone, a clumsy bit of writing, awkward framing, a wrong expression, or even simply weirdly misinformed misogyny - feels like it has a whole story behind it. You can just picture a hypothetical DP telling him that there's too much headroom in a shot, to which Marengi would respond with an elaborate explanation of how it's meant to look claustrophobic. Or, when there's a scene where everyone's meant to be just killing time, you can just imagine Marengi telling the woman to "just keep applying lipstick in a circular motion, like women normally would." Great stuff.

By: Mael Oui

Mael Oui — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:36:09 -0800

I've been waiting for this to be released over here (in the U.S.)! If Little Britain and Peep Show are here, why isn't this one?!

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:41:06 -0800

Maybe if everyone who'd ever been close to you had died, you'd be sarcastic, too. I've never heard of this brilliant series before. Thank you so much for this amazing post!

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:13:52 -0800

oooh! i love this show! thanks for the reminder...i think i haven't seen all the episodes yet. *cycles off to video store*

By: asok

asok — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:42:31 -0800

Right then, it falls on me to say - your new favourite show sucks.

By: boosh

boosh — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:45:40 -0800

Matthew Holness, Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry can also be seen in the brilliant 'Man to Man With Dean Learner': Interview with Garth Marenghi Folk singer Merriman Weir SF star Glynn Nimron Bath Buddies with Amir Chanan Matt Berry is also in Snuff Box with Rich Fulcher (from The Mighty Boosh - full episode here): Mac vs PC NSFW

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:23:58 -0800

Right then, it falls on me to say - your new favourite show sucks. I'm with you, sort of. It doesn't suck, exactly, it just fails horribly to live up to expectations (see also: The IT Crowd, the full-length episodes of Look Around You). The mistakes that Stitcherbeast talks about above are often wonderfully done, but they don't add up to much: by the 27th variation of a boom in shot gag, or the 93rd time we're bludgeoned over the head with the fact that Garth Marenghi is a no-talent hack who thinks he's a genius, I just gave up watching out of sheer boredom. Shame - the concept is fantastic, and in the hands of better writers and performers, it could have been a truly great show.

By: flashboy

flashboy — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:56:36 -0800

I don't think it sucks, but the TV show was nowhere near as good as the live shows they did; it became far more about spoofing bad production values in 80s TV, and less about the spot on perfect parody of bad horror writing, which is what they're really good at. ("Romford was the cruellest of cities" is completely wasted in the TV version.)

By: Midnight Creeper

Midnight Creeper — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:12:45 -0800

I wish I was more attractive like Dagless. Still, one can only dream. This show was one of the funniest things to come along in years. But I think you had to have watched a lot of B-grade '80s genre shows to really get it.