Sitting down to enjoy an ale at a cosy Cornish pub, Martin Clunes chuckles to himself as he recalls a poignant moment he was reminded of recently.
"We had a party during the first series of Doc Martin and I said to someone, 'I could very happily do this for the next 10 years if we have the chance'."
And that's exactly how things have panned out. Clunes can raise a pint to the monumental successful of the comedy drama which was first screened in 2004 and is now back for a sixth series.
Visitor attraction
Based on the tricky and truculent GP, who lives in the idyllic village of Portwenn, Doc Martin has become something of a worldwide phenomenon.
It's spawned a novel, numerous spin-offs and an army of devoted fans who travel from all over the world to Port Isaac, on the north coast of Cornwall, to see where the series is shot.
"We get so many Americans and Australians and Kiwis, it's extraordinary," says 51-year-old Clunes, who's enjoying some downtime following a promotional photoshoot earlier in the day.
"You can get two or three hundred people watching. It's nice, they're very on-side. It's not like filming in London where people beep their horns and try to ruin your shot."
Disgruntled locals
There have been some difficult times, however, with certain locals taking umbrage with the filming.
"For the last five or six years I felt semi-loathed when I was in the area," the actor reveals. "You know, people trying to extort money from us in one way or another, or very public displays of public dissatisfaction with us."
Clunes, his wife Philippa Braithwaite, who's one of the show's producers, and the rest of the Doc Martin team have always tried to be sensitive about shooting in such a small village, he insists.
"It's one of the reasons we don't film it every year. Anyway, I don't want to be dragged into that," he says.
Wedding bells
As friendly as Clunes is, there's a touch of bristle to some of his banter, his conversation dotted with numerous one-line responses. Perhaps he's just cautious about giving away too many plot lines.
The last series ended with the Doc and his long-suffering love interest Louisa's son James being kidnapped by the well-meaning but deranged pharmacist Mrs Tishell.
Their baby returned safe and sound, the nightmare actually brought the couple closer together and the opening of the new series sees the Doc donning his wedding suit.
"We really wanted to hit the ground running and they had to [get married] because it's the only thing they haven't done," says the former Men Behaving Badly star.
Motherly love
Wedding and honeymoon over, the couple hire the services of a male nanny to assist them, but it's not long before the trials and tribulations of married life begin to weigh heavily on the Doc.
"He does get a little unhinged. And the blood phobia comes back and then his mum [played by Claire Bloom] comes back and that's worse than any phobia," he adds. Will viewers see him unravel?
"I think you might see him as close to unravelling as you've ever seen him, yeah," says Clunes.
Earlier this year the actor was forced to take two weeks off - "which is sort of unheard of" - when he was taken ill with a viral infection. "It left me with no stamina. I couldn't cross a room, couldn't walk the dogs certainly, and couldn't really eat," he says.
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