Sitting down to enjoy an ale at a cosy Cornish pub tucked away on
Bodmin Moor, 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.
Based on the tricky and truculent GP, who boasts a
brusque bedside manner and lives in the idyllic village of Portwenn, Doc
Martin has become something of a worldwide phenomenon, spawning 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.”
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.
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.
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.
Today
he’s fully recovered, although a slimmer version of his former self. “I
always try to lose a bit of weight before I play Doc Martin but I have
lost nearly three stone since January,” he reveals.
And he was touched that some of the Port Isaac locals let him know he’d been missed.
“Your
detractors are usually more vocal than your allies, aren’t they, but
people have been so sweet saying that they’re pleased I’m well again,”
says Clunes who, unlike the majority of cast and crew, stays in the
nearby village of Delabole during the four-month shoot.
“I need to be tucked away, I have so many lines to learn,” he says.
He’s usually joined by his wife and daughter Emily, along with her pony, during the school holidays.
“It’s
not picturesque like Port Isaac and it gets a lot of fog and rain but I
love Delabole. I’ve never seen such a close-knit community,” he adds.
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