Ayoade plays Learner as a very sleazy and underhand person. He is seemingly without emotion or ability to empathize with other people, perhaps a reason for his poor acting skills. 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 Madeleine Wool who played Liz Asher. He also makes reference to an incident in which he punches one of the child actors in the head. Although Dean seems to be genuinely friendly with Garth and, to a lesser extent, character actor Todd Rivers (played by Matt Berry), his relationship with other clients, colleagues and business associates of his (such as Steve Pising and folk singer Merriman Weir) are shown in Man to Man as being somewhat colder and more manipulative, culminating in the final episode of the series in which Dean and his cadre are shown as being primarily responsible for the woes of widely hated actor Randolph Caer.