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.