Matthew Holness

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?

Another week, another queasy mix of comedy and unpleasantness. The latter comes courtesy of a ]Keith Chegwin appearance; he turns up to Warwick's showbiz flat-warming party and makes a contribution to a discussion about suicide (with Les Dennis and Shaun Williamson, both no strangers to the Gervais/Merchant world) that you'll wish you'd never heard. Short of getting a Naked Jungle DVD for Christmas, it's hard to think of anything worse.

Luckily, before that, there's some comedy that doesn't rely on celebrity input, including edgy scenes with Warwick's love rival Ian (Matthew Holness, underplaying beautifully) and a turn by Cat Deeley as an unlikely paid-for guest.

A week before this TV car crash occurred, a must-have DVD of Marenghi episodes appeared, showing what the people behind this terrible show can really do. C4 have busily tagged it to Man to Man; it would be a shame if the former, one of the quirkiest and best TV comedies of the last 10 years was to be tainted by association with what is, without question, a turkey whose wings we will hear beating many years hence.

Comic's Corner

The Telegraph published an article written by Matthew Holness in character as Garth Marenghi.

It is, simply, a clever idea that works well on television - unlike the Perrier Award-winning Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (Channel 4, Thursday, 10.35pm) which is a clever idea that doesn't work well on television.

I hereby vow never to work in TV again

The Guardian published this article in which Matthew Holness, writing in character as star horror author Garth Marenghi, explained how budgetary problems, mysterious deaths and the secret service nearly ruined the (fictional) production of Darkplace.