Viper Squad Ten

[ Friday, March 16, 2007 ]

I've entered Garth Merenghi's dark place... and I loved it!
Starbuck [16:30] Comments: 5 []
 


The only consolation following the recent spat between my cable provider and BSkyB, is that Virgin Media have made their archive of "thousands of on-demand TV programmes" free of charge as a placatory gesture following the loss of Sky's flagship entertainment channel, Sky One.

I normally balk at paying 50p for a half-hour TV show, and I've tended to resist watching the freebie first episodes of a Video On Demand series just in case it turns out that I rather like it.

This happened last year with The Mighty Boosh. I saw the first two episodes of the first series free, then resisted watching the remaining episodes, thinking that although it would be worth the money, I'd much prefer to own the DVD at some point, and I didn't want to pay for the same episodes twice. Consequently I was left painfully Boosh-less for 10 months whilst I waited for Christmas to come round.

But sod it, I've been gobbling up all the free content that I can. And I'm overjoyed to have finally managed to catch Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, a show much recommended in the past by elements of my blogroll, and with good reason. Darkplace, Darkplace, Darkplace, Darkplace!

I know that hyperpole is my business, but business is good! So might I overexcitedly rave that its probably my favourite comedy, EVER! Probably. Such a joy, and laugh-out-loud funny, and I NEVER laugh out loud.

For a taster, not that it'll mean much to most of you, visit horror writer Garth's official website. If you dare...


And man, I wish I'd seen Man to Man with Dean Learner last year, the chatshow by Garth's publisher & fellow Darkplace non-actor Dean Learner.

Favourite Dean quote (talking about actress Madeline Wool, missing presumed dead): "She was like a candle in the wind... unreliable."

Of course, that's not really Dean Learner playing Thornton Reed, its the wondeful Richard Ayoade playing Dean Learner playing Thornton Reed.


I've been seeing a lot of Ayoade of late. Likewise, the Booshes' Julian Barratt (the Padre in Darkplace Hospital) and Noel Fielding, the triumvirate of which also starred in Nathan Barley, something else I've managed to catch up via VOD.

I couldn't get into Nathan Barley first time round. It just didn't gel with me, and then I only managed to catch the few few eps before giving up on it. But since then I've fallen into manly love with Barratt so I thought I'd give it another chance. With a cast list to die for, and Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris on the writing team, perhaps I was just too much of an Idiot back in 2005. And second time round, not expecting any great LOL moments, I was delighted to find - it's well weapon!


5 Comment(s):


Comment by Anonymous Anonymous, at March 17, 2007 10:17 pm  :

Somebody told me "Ring of Fire" is something you get after a vindaloo!



Comment by Blogger Starbuck, at March 18, 2007 7:17 pm  :

Talking of which, Max, I know it was Comic Relief at the weekend, but surely Colin Murray didn't have to turn himself into a young Ben Elton when he sang the aforementioned Johnny Cash classic...



Comment by Anonymous Anonymous, at March 19, 2007 4:43 pm  :

Yay! When it was on during the wee hours of our night shifts, this lil' program kept our morale to near banned levels. All hail Garth!



Comment by Blogger Starbuck, at March 19, 2007 6:14 pm  :

And I've just seen that Dean Learner's chatshow's coming to DVD sometime in October. Pre-order now!!!



Comment by Blogger Starbuck, at April 16, 2007 7:47 pm  :

And those on Virgin can watch it on demand free of charge, NOW!


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