''Man to Man with Dean Learner'' is a British
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
chat show that was first broadcast on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
on 20 October 2006 and released on DVD on 3 September 2007. It features
comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...
s
Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British actor, comedian, broadcaster and filmmaker. He is best known for his role as socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he ...
and
Matthew Holness
Matthew James Holness (born 1975) is an English comedian, writer, director, and actor. He is best known for creating and playing the fictional horror author Garth Marenghi.
Early life and education
Born in Whitstable, Kent, Holness became a f ...
.
Originally called ''Deano's After Dark'', the show features
Dean Learner
Dean Learner is a fictional character created and performed by British comedian Richard Ayoade in stage shows and television shows. Learner is a famous publisher, mostly of pornography, but also of the books of the fictional horror writer Garth M ...
(Ayoade) chatting to a range of guest characters (all played by Ayoade's co-writer, Matthew Holness) including folk singer Merriman Weir and horror writer
Garth Marenghi
Garth Marenghi is a fictional horror author created by English comedians Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade and portrayed by Holness. He is depicted as a conceited hack writer, who remains blissfully (or even wilfully) unaware of his lack of tal ...
.
Production
Holness and Ayoade spent time testing out material in front of a live audience in December 2005 ; the show involved Ayoade fixed in the role of smut-peddling presenter Dean Learner and Holness playing various characters. These included Glynn Nimron, a
sci-fi – or "S.F.", as he preferred it – actor with a new biography detailing his extremely close relationship with a director; Garth Marenghi, returning to promote his new ''Darkplace''-esque movie ''War of the Wasps''; folk musician Merriman Weir who has a penchant for rather dark songs (Holness is an adept guitarist); and another actor, Randolph Caer, who became a social pariah after starring in one of Dean's
grindhouse movies (the Marenghi-penned
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
''Bitch Killer'').
Bafta Nominated composer
Andrew Hewitt
Andrew Hewitt (born March 28th, 1976) is an English composer based in Los Angeles.
Training
Hewitt was classically trained from childhood as a pianist and tenor singer. He won music scholarships to the Westminster Abbey Choir, Uppingham School, ...
, who scored ''Darkplace'', also scored sections of ''Man to Man''.
An amount of the humour stems from Learner's dubious business activities and anachronistically androcentric tendencies – with Finnish model Satu Suominen (as his 'beautiful assistant-cum-bartender') being the target of many of his jibes, and most of the guests having some sort of business connection to Learner which is sometimes declared upfront and sometimes revealed in the course of the episode.
Episodes
Garth Marenghi
*Original Transmission Date: 20 October 2006
Marenghi discusses his humorous side and how it caused him to lose an ear, his latest movie ''War of the Wasps'' which turns out to be an allegory for a future war with the Dutch, and his new interest in painting having already done one exhibition and currently working on another. Many elements of the Marenghi character bear similarities to fiction author
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
. Dean Learner goes into his first of several tirades. This initial one is about philosophy and having to queue for the restroom.
Steve Pising
*Original Transmission Date: 27 October 2006
Steve 'The Accelerator' Pising (pronounced 'pissing') is known to his public as former four time Formula Five Motor Racing World Champion. He is hospitalised in the early 1990s after a horrific accident due to mysterious brake failure, which ended his motor racing career. In this episode of Man to Man, we learn of Steve's love of camels and his hatred of his brother Barry. We also get a sneak peek at Dean's new reality show with Steve called ''The Learner''. Dean has a short rant here, in which he shares his appreciation of wet wipes with Steve. Pising has many similarities to British
F1 champion
Nigel Mansell
Nigel Ernest James Mansell, (; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series ( 1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over ...
.
Glynn Nimron
*Original Transmission Date: 3 November 2006
Glynn Nimron is a true legend in his field; in this case, episodic futuristic law enforcement television drama series of the mid-1970s. A pioneering half-Hawaiian actor most famous for his role as 'Bot' in the classic Sci-Fi series ''Galacticops'', Glynn will be celebrating the release of his 3000th film, ''Space Bandits From Pluto and their Pirate Pals'', later this year. Nimron has many similarities to ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
''
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the ''Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, then ...
and speaks with a voice reminiscent of
George Takei and
Kryten
Kryten is a fictional character in the British science fiction situation comedy ''Red Dwarf''. The name ''Kryten'' is a reference to the head butler in the J.M. Barrie play ''The Admirable Crichton''. Originally referred to as a Series III mecha ...
from the British comedy series
Red Dwarf
''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...
.
Merriman Weir
*Original Transmission Date: 10 November 2006
Merriman Weir is a legendary folk guitarist famed for classic songs of melancholy and regret. This is Weir's first television appearance in a 30-year career and follows his much publicised bar-fight with
James Blunt
James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount; 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. A former reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards regiment of the British Army, he served under NATO during the 1999 Kosovo War. After l ...
at this year's Big Chill festival. Don't miss this rare and classic acoustic set (this last instruction has also been forwarded to Merriman).
Amir Chanan
* Original Transmission Date: 17 November 2006
Amir Chanan is a self-confessed 'Master of the Psychic Arts'. Rediscovered by a new generation of fans after his classic 'Mind Fondle' appears on
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 until 2 ...
, Amir talks to Dean about conspiracy theories, comfort feeding, mind control for the under fives and his bath-time therapy for the dispossessed. Chanan has many similarities to
Israeli
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli ...
psychic Uri Geller.
Randolph Caer
*Original Transmission Date: 24 November 2006
The underrated character actor Randolph Caer grants his first television interview in 28 years following his traumatic 'live' mauling by TV's Lennard Ritter. Celebrated for his groundbreaking performances in films such as ''Bitch Killer'', ''Pew! What A Scorcher!'' and ''That Duck! 2: (Duck on the Run)'', Randolph appears exclusively on ''Man to Man'' for a birthday celebration special.
Due to the death of Caer shortly before the programme's transmission, all guests from the previous five episodes (except Merriman Weir) were invited on to pay their respects. Over the course of the episode it is apparent that many of these guests, and Dean himself, bear some responsibility for Caer's downward spiral, which began after Caer became a social pariah due to his role in ''Bitch Killer''. Caer's career slide is similar to that of respected British director
Michael Powell whose career never fully recovered from the critical mauling it received for ''
Peeping Tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...
'' (1960), a serial killer film loathed at the time by the press but which now is regarded by many, including
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
, as a seminal masterpiece.
External links
*
{{Richard Ayoade
Channel 4 comedy
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
2006 British television series debuts
2006 British television series endings
2000s British comedy television series
British television talk shows
English-language television shows
Films scored by Andrew Hewitt