Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a British horror parody television series created by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness for Channel 4.

Darkplace parodies the fashion, special effects, production gaffes, and music of low-budget '80s television, as well as the arrogant attitude of certain writers and performers.

In 2005, Channel 4's Film4 asked Holness and Ayoade to write a script for a film version of the series,[2] but the project never saw further development.

The spoof comedy series, released in 2004, lampoons 1980s television drama,[3] particularly horror, sci-fi, and "the rampant egotism of self-appointed 'mastermind' authors".

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".

From "the retro Channel 4 logo at the start to the distortion of the analogue music track at the start of scenes", "the fashion, ... the texture of film stock",[4] "[the] deliberately poor continuity, cheesy lines, wooden acting and cheap special effects"; it is delivered "in such a pitch perfect way you can't help but laugh".

[11] A few other (real) actors have recurring roles in the show-within-the-show: Kim Noble appears in every episode as Jim, a hospital worker whose main function is to listen to Dagless reel off a lengthy speech and respond with a "yes" or other monosyllabic reply, and Noble's real comedy partner Stuart Silver appears as "The Extra": a character whose name is unknown and has been a doctor, receptionist, keyboard soloist and barman.

The site's critical consensus reads, "The short-lived Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is strangely brilliant, even while buried under its own layers of satire.

During the interview with Garth a clip from the supposedly forthcoming movie, War of the Wasps, is shown, again featuring Dean Learner and his acting ability.

As of 2022[update] Darkplace is available to watch on All 4 (Channel 4's free streaming service) and BritBox, and was screened on UK Gold in January 2016.