Garth Marenghi: how the Edinburgh award winner found his Darkplace

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Our series exploring the stage origins of hit comedies continues with the cult hospital horror show that scared up audiences to become a fringe sensation

Garth Marenghi, serious horror writer and self-described “master of the macabre”, was born in 1950 in east London. Yet it wasn’t until the mid-90s that he first appeared in public, reciting a passage from one of his many horror novels (he’s “one of the few people … who’ve written more books than they’ve read”) at a Cambridge University cabaret night.

Long before Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace – the Channel 4 series broadcast in 2004 – the prolific author was a star of the stage. Matthew Holness, the writer, actor and director behind the fictional horror writer, toured his Garth monologue with the Footlights. After university and temping by day, he then featured in the BBC sketch show Bruiser but felt “slightly disillusioned” with sketches. Holness began writing with Richard Ayoade, trying something character-led and horror-based. It was time for Marenghi to rise again.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bDqQch

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