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AN INTERVIEW WITH DEAN LEARNER

DEAN LEARNER ON GARTH MARENGHI’S DARKPLACE

I’ve had the great privilege to work with many artists on many different television projects but I could only define one as truly epoch-shattering: Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. Garth is the great Imaginer of our time. His countless books from Slicer right up until Brainjerk stand testimony to that. But I consider Darkplace to be his finest achievement. You see, with the books, Garth has to partially rely on the reader to imagine things for him or herself; he or she has to ‘picture the scene’. Now, no reader is going to have as good an imagination as Marenghi and, as a result, they’ll more than likely end up ruining the story.

The good thing about TV is that it requires no imagination on the part of the viewer whatsoever, so I feel that one gets a much fuller experience from Darkplace than from any novel. I mean how can you be certain of what Holden Caufield really looks like? It’s very unsatisfying. Needless to say, Darkplace was way ahead of its time, even when it finally made it on to British TV in 2004.

For example, the surviving cast gave interviews elucidating the themes present in episodes such as Apes of Wrath and Scotch Mist and these were inter-cut with the programmes themselves, thus creating a ‘show within a show’. Something that I don’t believe had ever been done in drama before. I mean, what other works of art do you know of that have two levels? The Bible and maybe Extras, but that’s it.

 

GARTH MARENGHI ON MAN TO MAN WITH DEAN LEARNER

It’s said a prophet ain’t welcome in his home town. That’s a crock of bull. I grew up in Romford and everyone’s made to feel equally unwelcome there, prophet or nay. But I guess what Billy Aphorist was trying to coin was that it can be difficult for great men such as myself to find a place that understands them. Well, my publisher, agent and business manager has located such an idyll. It’s a new talk show called Man to Man with Dean Learner.

Dean is a perfectionist. He’ll give every single dancer in his clubs a personal once-over (and they are all single, he makes sure of that.) So I was happy to appear on Man to Man knowing that it would be a high-class affair with a similar level of scrupularity to detail (though Dean didn’t make me take my top off). What he did do was provide a forum in which I was able to discuss the fantastique, share my philosophies, and get paid enough wad to take the curse off this quarter’s V.A.T. bill.

As Dean himself told me, ‘I want to do a televisual equivalent of the Symposium. With cocktails. Plus I won’t try and just push my own agenda, like Socrates seemed to do.’ Your humble prophet has just found a new home. And he’s very welcome there.