Character
The character is Garth Marenghi's publisher, and regards Marenghi and his (highly dubious) talents with a respect that sometimes borders on worship (he has been known to assault small children for criticising Marenghi's writing). No matter how tatty or ridiculous Marenghi's output is, Learner is forever in awe of Marenghi's gifts. Marenghi, of course, accepts Learner's praise without question, although he doesn't seem to have any great fondness for Learner in return.
A more famous quote from one of the episodes sees Learner praise Marenghi's talents: "Garth is the most significant artist I've ever worked with and I've worked with Lulu and four other people. So, er, we're talking creme de la creme."
Learner's attempts to first sell Darkplace were fruitless; he took the reels of 60 episodes of the show to Channel 4, whom he expected to take the footage and air it, no questions asked. However the Channel told him they did not ask him to make the show, which Learner had no idea they needed to do. Eventually the show enjoyed a brief stint in Peru, with Learner declaring: "Thank God for the Peruvian market!" In the Garth Marenghi's Darkplace show within the show, Learner plays Thornton Reed, a camp hospital administrator who bears a trademark shotgun and cigar and answers to Hospital boss "Won Ton." He is known in this respect for his brilliant but sometimes pathetic attempts at comedy, one of them being "If Won Ton hears about this my arse is grass, and he's got a lawnmower!" (from Darkplace episode 4). This was not Learner and Marenghi's first major creative collaboration. Learner directed the seventies film adaptation of Marenghi's novel Bitch Killer, and also appears as Reed in Marenghi's 2006 movie, War of the Wasps. Clips of both projects were shown on Learner's chat show.
Apart from publishing Marenghi's books, appearing in Marenghi's TV shows and films and publishing various gentlemen's titles, Learner also has many other side projects, including the running of the Formula Five motor racing team "The Dean Team", with whom Steve Pising won four world titles. After leaving The Dean Team, Pising suffered a major crash in his first race with his new team, a crash which may or may not have been caused by Learner. After several years, Pising worked with Learner again on a new TV show, "The Learner", where they held auditions for a new job at Pising Parts, now owned by Learner. Dean has also released his own autobiography, "I Have A Dean", which has now been reduced to the special low price of £90.
Ayoade plays Learner as a very sleazy and underhand person. For example in the Darkplace special features, when asked what happened to "Ahmed", the original financial backer of Darkplace, Learner says: "Ahmed very sadly died. He was shot dead in his flat." and looks very conspicuously away from the camera. In another interview he also says that when Marenghi joined another Manager in the '80s, the manager very quickly died and Garth returned to Learner. It is also implied he knows something about the disappearance of Darkplace co-star Madeline Wool who played Liz Asher. He also makes reference to an incident in which he punches one of the child actors in the head.
Read more about this topic: Dean Learner
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.”
—Aristotle (384–22 B.C.)
“A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.”
—J. August Strindberg (1849–1912)