Garth Marenghi was a prolific author of lurid horror novels in the late 70s and early 80s. It was perhaps inevitable that he would turn his pen to writing for TV, but only a man of Marenghi's over-weening talent would have been able also direct and star in the resulting series.
Marenghi played Dr Rick Dagless, the leading MD at Darkplace Hospital; a medical facility which just happens to sit over the gates to Hell itself; and together with his colleagues he was planned to face epic evils over the course of more than fifty episodes.
Alas, production issues - up to an including the death or disappearance of cast members - plagued the show. When every TV channel refused to pick up the series, Marenghi revealed that a secret government agency known as MI8 ("three levels above MI6") had deliberately sabotaged Darkplace for being "too radical".
Fortunately for all of us, Marenghi managed to preserve six episodes of the program in his basement, and in 2004, with the quality of TV at an all-time nadir, Channel 4 finally agreed to broadcast the surviving shows. They are presented here with the additional bonus of introductions from Marenghi himself, as well as interviews with the author and the other surviving cast members.
... and if you believe all the above, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is of course a parody, presenting the kind of cheap, tacky 80s TV show that an egomaniac might have produced if everyone around him was a creeping sycophant. If you imagine the deformed union of General Hospital and the 1990s reboot of The Outer Limits, then ... well you're still far shoot of this show's lunacy, but you are kind of on the right track.
Here's fifty seconds to show you what I mean
If utter absurdity is your thing, check it out.
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