Chris Hewitt from Empire magazine interviews Matthew Holness and Alice Lowe during the Totally Serialized festival, where all six episodes of Darkplace were played back to back to celebrate its ten year anniversary.
+Brian Bagnall Why not let it be? it was brief and beautiful, like some of the best things, in this universe. It wasn't bloated by a naff 3rd series, like the Boosh. How vulgar!
However, there's a big difference between having 2 and 3 series - Phoenix Nights, Spaced, Fawlty - all had 2 and felt just right. Merenghi definitely felt unfinished without a second series but this is exactly what crowdfunding was meant for! Come on Matt - get it Kickstarted! :-)
I think there is something to them being in debt and working with limitations, its what made the show have its creative spark. The scene where they have the plates deliberately on strings and the helicopter is just some paper mache and a plastic disc. Those were all probably real limitations that they creatively designed to fit in with the cheesy eighties theme. I really think limitation breeds inspiration, and if they have a ton of money from Kickstarter then I fear it wont really be as special. Id love to see some more installments as much as anyone though.
Matthew Holness is such a sweetheart, Alice Lowe is so outspoken! Funny to see how different they are from their Darkplace characters, and sad to hear how a Series 2 did get sketched out but was never shot. So Garth Marenghi really has weaved his last dream. It's too bad our RU-vid fandom happened too late.
The thing is the show was probably done just a couple of years too early, because people didn't really start hearing about it until RU-vid became a thing in 2006.
Will always remember taping Darkplace (yes VHS! 2004 they still existed) and passing it around school. Its true that the internet fandom did come a bit after. Its a near perfect comedy show
Delighted to stumble upon this interview. The whole Darkplace idea is delicious, exquisite, perfection, too-big-for-itself (in a Ralph Rauschenberg sense). What I love here is to discover that Matthew Holness’ voice is quite different to both Garth’s and Rick’s. I’ve just bought the DVD on Amazon, having only seen Garth Marenghi on RU-vid. Absolutely GENIUS. Rick Dagless’ corridor run is just too much 😅.
It's too bad that Ayoade or Berry couldn't make an appearance. It's weird to me that Holness didn't at least have a cameo on "The IT Crowd" - he was a great IT guy in "Bruiser"
I can watch Garth Marenghi Dark place daily, if you haven't watched it with the commentary on yet then you're in for a treat. Brilliant. I love everything about this series. Regards, David from Manchester, England, UK
This was so enlightening... it explains so much. The fact that real cameramen with high skills film this series on film really explains why its just so good. Great writing and awesome acting, cool sets and music.. Thank you for sharing.
Really cool interview. Would love to see the full cast together for a retrospective or something - they're all super talented and interesting in their own right so it would be cool to see them back together after they've all gone off to do so many other things and dipped in and out of each other's careers over time. Garth Marenghi was an absolute comedy gem that I remember being really excited for when it first aired and made myself stay in to watch it at a time in my life when my #1 priority was going out to get pissed as much as possible. Now it's a guaranteed good time with a few mates who get it and a couple of Js for good measure. Also, the in character commentaries on the DVD are superb.
Unfortunately Andrew it's the world we live in. If a shows premise is too complicated then TV execs panic and chuck it on late with next to no advertising but simplistic scripted reality shows rule and the dull mass of the general public get dumber by the day
Thanks very much for posting. Darkplace just randomly popped into my head about half an hour ago for no discernible reason. I just remembered it and had a need to watch some! Such a great series, real genius.
Thanks for uploading this - really enjoyed it. Best comedy show in a long time. Definitely murdered by the time slot. Channel 4 didn't even release it on DVD for ages and all you could get was a dodgy TV copy for 3 quid off Ebay. Noel's keeps saying "Yavin" when he's playing the head Monkey. Dunno if it was intentional but it's where Princess Leah tells Gran Moff Tarkin the Rebel base is in Star Wars. My favourite line in the entire show "you again you barstard!"
This interview is old now, and Darkplace was already old when they did this interview. I just discovered the show last week ☹ I need more Matt Holness and Alice Lowe! I need interviews with Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade! It's not fair! And how come none of the people at this thing asked about the ADR? Most of the questions were superficial. "Why Romford?" Really?!
I read somewhere that while Matthew is still in show business, he's no longer a comedian, considering the comedy scene an, and I quote, "unpleasant business full of unpleasant people." Shame, really, but hopefully he's happier with his new projects! :)
I do think a lot of comedians tend to have issues and see comedy as a sort of therapy/vent. Wouldn't surprise me that there'd be a lot of vitriolic personalities in the business.
David bailey shot a bunch of pics for a Sunday times Oasis interview back in the day, confided to the writer of the piece that rock stars were okay whereas the comedians that he met were the most unpleasant the most insecure basically the worst in his view..
Todd & Dean play the same character in The Mighty Boosh ( Like I need to inform you Dream Weavers of this fact, I'm Northern so I can't shut up ), Richard Bainbridge has a legendary moustache. I love the Chopper MK1 & MK2 chase with Dean playing Thornton coming in on a classic Grifter. I used to live in Glasgow & I ain't going back. This series is pure genius that will live in my heart forever, the Boosh will too. Regards, David from Manchester, England, UK. Shift your arse Liz
Does anyone know if that pilot he refers to (at 6.45) is available anywhere? I can't make out what he says the name was: "Garth Marenghi's The Toll" maybe?
HG Wells 'invented the internet' in his 1923 utopian story, 'Men like Gods.' Great book. I think 'Lifehouse', Townshend's aborted album, was inspired by it, in part.
Considering that Stephen King thought he was better than Kubrick at adapting his own novels that he began to direct his own films, Garth does have a bit of King in his character. The paperback writer who writes pure shlock yet thinks he's writing pure gold.
He's definitely 90 percent Stephen King, but I think Holness' answer is probably accurate. There is just a certain amount of sorta absurd pretentiousness in serious Horror and Hard Sci-Fi writers all around. The opening credits are a parody of Ray Bradbury's Theater and Twilight Zone, for example.
I always saw the Garth character as being a criticism of any creative narcissists who think highly of themselves, and that the King-like connection is superficial to a certain degree. Garth is more an amalgamation of pretentiousness from a broad spectrum rather than just one or two particular people.
14:28 - oh f*ck me, that's sublime. They actually *admit* that the whole freaking thing is the Throw It In trope. "Using film means you can't, you haven't got lots of takes that you can do. But that was quite good for this because we thought, 'Great! If we p!ss up the take it's great, we just use it!" You've got two takes, that's it, if you bugger out, there goes it. So a lot of that stuff's *genuine!"*
A carpark in milan, the discovery of her body was overshadowed in the news by the discovery of Richard III in a car park in Leicester at the same time.
Where do you get the idea that he isn't on good terms with them? If it's simply because they haven't been doing professional stuff together, that doesn't mean anything.
