Dark Weaver of dreams

January 30, 2004 2:09 AM

Garth Marenghi is a sculptor of nightmares, is the only person you'll ever meet who has written more books than he has read. Now you can see the return of his Cult '80s TV show. If you only get to see one TV series from the UK this year, and if you dare, then vist the Dark Place.
posted by seanyboy (17 comments total)

Is it just me, or is that the guy who installs a firewall on Tim's computer in "The Office" ?
posted by ed\26h at 2:34 AM on January 30, 2004

I first met Garth Marenghi at the 1987 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, after the infamous "DarkFist" poetry reading at which he was beaten to a bloody pulp by Clive Barker after an argument about how many pairs of shoes could be made from the average human skin.
As I helped him up a small black book fell from his pocket. Impulsively I picked it up and later, after we shared a meal at a local Indian restaurant (a meal that culminated in our being forcibly ejected from the premises when Marenghi attempted to summon Cthulhu by spitting chewed poppadums over the other diners), I looked through the strangely stained tome.
The complex mixture of diagrams and numbers within made no sense to me at the time, and it was only years later (and after vast and difficult research) that I realised it was a compulsively annotated list of every public toilet within walking distance of all the tube stations on the Northern Line .
I still have no idea what to make of this.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:57 AM on January 30, 2004 [1 favorite]

haha great anecdote thatwhichfalls! I'm going to have to watch his programme now.
posted by derbs at 3:39 AM on January 30, 2004

thatwhichfalls, you have just made the entire experience all the better. Fantastico!
posted by Katemonkey at 3:58 AM on January 30, 2004

Is this post not just one big advertisement for what promises to be a fairly average comedy show? I mean, do carry on, but ...
posted by bwerdmuller at 4:00 AM on January 30, 2004

Is it just me, or is that the guy who installs a firewall on Tim's computer in "The Office" ?

It is indeed: Mr Matthew Holness, Esq.
posted by rory at 4:03 AM on January 30, 2004

I have to say, yes, bwerdmuller.

Except for the "average" bit.
posted by Blue Stone at 4:04 AM on January 30, 2004

bwerdmuller, you obviously never saw his Edinburgh Fringe shows, the second of which was a deserving winner of the Perrier Award. Not "fairly average" at all.
posted by rory at 4:06 AM on January 30, 2004

Not so much an advert, but me telling you about something I liked that you may like too. If anything the "Canon" section of the first link was enough to qualify this to myself as a worthy meFi link.
BlueStone; What's your point.
posted by seanyboy at 4:23 AM on January 30, 2004

you obviously never saw his Edinburgh Fringe shows

I didn't, actually, but as I live in Edinburgh, I probably should have. Bum. (Hey, but I caught Dmitri Martin this year, which has to count for something, right?)

I stand corrected on the "average", and will watch it with interest.
posted by bwerdmuller at 5:19 AM on January 30, 2004

As a complete aside, Rory, it looks very much like you work in the same place I do ... Small world.
posted by bwerdmuller at 5:20 AM on January 30, 2004

'Ain't no way no whitey's gonna git me to disrespec' ma bluds. Some hood would woop me good.'

Looks interesting. I'll make sure to check it out.
posted by squealy at 5:53 AM on January 30, 2004

Well now it's been on we can all comment on it's averageness.

Like the Funky Squad, but without the antipodean excuse for being fairly average, I thought.

Not as well executed as Look Around You.

On the plus side, I found the sound treatment quite authentic.
posted by asok at 5:58 AM on January 30, 2004

seanyboy - (I don't want to get all fisticuffs-at-dawn over this) the site you direct us to is a relatively small advert for something that's only available for those who can recieve UK TV; as such, the meat of the post is not internet accessible.

My post, which you graciously mention, pointed to media accessible over the internet via streamed radio, available to everyone; so not just an advert for stuff a lot of MeFi readers can't get at.

I think that was my point.

BTW, I'm quite excited by this programme, and have it waiting on video for me to watch any time now.So no spoilers in this thread plz.>/b>
posted by Blue Stone at 6:01 AM on January 30, 2004

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posted by Blue Stone at 6:01 AM on January 30, 2004

The main site seanyboy directed us to wasn't the TV show - read the first link, there's lots of good stuff there that gives a flavour of the Marenghi experience.

As a complete aside, Rory, it looks very much like you work in the same place I do ... Small world.
Blimey. Same building, institution, or just city? (Yes, Demetri was great; good choice there.)
posted by rory at 7:30 AM on January 30, 2004

Building. Hi.

(That is a very funny site. Apologies for being snarky above.)
posted by bwerdmuller at 7:39 AM on January 30, 2004