The stunning wedding gown Caroline Catz wears for her character’s long-awaited marriage to Doc Martin hides a multitude of secrets.
The ivory lace and silk satin dress, by award winning London designers Belle and Bunty, had to have thermal padding, and be long enough to cover the white trainers she wore underneath.
“There was all sorts of criteria for the dress. A lot of the first episode is filmed at night, and Louisa and Martin get into all sorts of scrapes. So the dress had to have sleeves and could fit thermals into it to keep me warm. This one dress filled all our criteria,” says Caroline, who found the bridal shop near her London home.
“It was a beautiful, romantic dress and I fell in love with it, and loved wearing it. It’s a thirties style with fine lace bodice and sleeves, lined in silk georgette, and a silk satin skirt, trimmed with satin covered buttons. My veil was decorated with tiny silk flowers, and Icarried a small simple posy of seasonal flowers.
“We had to have four dresses made; one really good one for the wedding and others in various stages of demise.
“I had three pairs of pretty ivory satin wedding shoes trimmed with diamantés. But I also wore stacked white trainers so I would still be the right height.”
Caroline admits she couldn’t have been more thrilled when she read the script for the first episode about the wedding scenes.
“I had always wondered what would happen if they were really together, and made a go of the relationship.
“We left Martin and Louisa last time having decided that they are going to make a go of their relationship. The baby had been kidnapped by Mrs Tishell and that was a bonding moment for the couple after they had done a lot of dithering about their future together.
“When Mrs Tishell took the baby that changed the game completely. Then they realised how much they wanted to be parents together, and how much they wanted to be together.
“So we start the new series with them actually making a go of it this time for the first time ever. We have always avoided it before, and undercut the idea of them actually properly being together.
“There have been moments where it has almost happened but it always messes up. This is the series where we try that out and they try to be together. It is frustrating for both of them. The fun in the writing of this series is there is so much between them; they love one another, and you really believe they do, but they are such different individuals.
“Every episode you see them trying harder and harder to make it work. The chaos element for the Doc of having another two people in his life, and we are all living in his house which is probably not the best choice in the circumstances, but that is the choice they have made for all the practical reasons of running the surgery.
“They have baby James and they have to make it work. It is not as if they don’t love one another, they do. They really do have to find a way through their differences, but there is a stubborn streak with both of them.
“Part of the fun of playing this role for me is that Louisa is constantly making the same mistake. Every encounter she has with Martin she thinks she can improve him. It is absolutely ridiculous, she can’t.
“Louisa particularly wanted to have a white wedding because it is traditional and she liked the idea of getting married in her beautiful local church and trying to put right what went wrong in the first wedding. But Martin hates the idea.”
The villagers are all invited to the wedding which was filmed at St Nonna’s Church in the tiny hamlet of Altarnun near Bodmin, known as the ‘cathedral of the moors’. It was a freezing cold day and everyone was wrapped up to stay warm until the cameras rolled. The villagers spring a honeymoon surprise on the newly weds by paying for them to stay ina romantic hunting lodge deep in the forest.
“Martin and Louisa wanted to take a quiet honeymoon later in the year. But here they are being taken on this magical mystery tour by Bert Large chauffeuring them through Bodmin Moor.
“The idea of being taken on this odyssey is quite romantic. But of course the person taking them is Bert, who is not really the most reliable. It has chaos written all over it, and both Martin and Louisa are very sceptical.”
Their fears are soon realised when they are left alone in the remote lodge, and things start to go horribly wrong.
“I have always loved doing the series because you get this chocolate box backdrop but really what goes on is complicated; a little darker side of the village than you’d imagine it to be. Odd and quirky things happen which are always surprising. You never know when those moments are going to come up, and that is the joy of the series.”
Louisa a faces another dilemma when the nanny she’s hired to look after James when she returns to work as the local school headmistress is driven away by Martin’s rude remarks. Mike Pruddy, a former soldier, with years of experience of looking after his younger siblings steps into become the new nanny. While Martin approves of Mike’s very ordered approach to baby care, Louisa is less than convinced that he’s right for the job.
“Louisa doesn’t really like the idea of Mike having a bond with her baby. I think going back to work when you have had a baby is a hard thing to do. It is a terrible wrench. Anybody spending time with the baby when she can’t, it is going to be difficult for her.
“It is very hard for Louisa to leave James with Mike. She does a very good job, but she finds it painful to be away from her baby, which I think all mums everywhere will relate to.”
With a son, Sonny and daughter Honour, Caroline knows just what it is like for working mums to have to leave their children. But her children have the bonus of being able to visit mum in Cornwall during their school holidays.
“We have been going to Cornwall for nine years. My kids have spent all their summers here. The years in between filming the children have said ‘can we go to Port Isaac?’ They really love it. It has a very special place in our hearts now.
“What’s brilliant about doing a job like this is that you get the best of both worlds, without having the responsibility of having to buy somewhere here in Port Isaac. We love living in London but we also have a camper van to get out of the city. You need to get to the sea at times when you live in London.”
Source: HERE
