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Saturday, February 15, 2014
5Qs on Friday: Martin Clunes
For five seasons spread out over 10 years, actor Martin Clunes has descended on the fictional seaside town of Portwenn as its brusk but, deep down, loving and lovable Dr. Martin Ellingham on Doc Martin.
On the show, the doc is a one-time surgeon whose disdain for blood and gore had him hightailing it from the big city to the town where its quirky characters' ailments are often decidedly less bloody. But Doc Martin is much more than a comedy about an ill-mannered doctor. It's about a quaint town - in the real world, Port Isaac, Cornwall - that's so comfy cozy you just want to wrap yourself in it. It's about the townspeople who are nosy, but nosy because they care about their town and their neighbors.
And it's about a doctor whose bad temper can't mask his love for Louisa (Caroline Catz) and their baby son James.
Martin spoke with TVFirstLook about Doc Martin's sixth season starting in February, the doctor's wedding to Louisa - and their explosive honeymoon, and the likelihood of there being a seventh season.
Keep reading HERE.
Caroline Catz on DCI Banks, Doc Martin and training with the Army
"I love playing Louisa and it's brilliant being in Cornwall but it's great to have the opportunity to play a different role. When I'm playing Louisa, I spend most of my time trying to educate Martin into how he can be a little more approachable, so it's nice to have the tables turned and play the tricky, difficult one."
Given that home is London, it's fair to say Catz knows the country's rail links well, and her kids do too.
"Obviously I get back as soon as I can every weekend, but they've come up to Leeds and they spend a lot of time in Cornwall."
It's not been confirmed whether Doc Martin, which is filmed every two years, will return for a seventh series.
"It was brilliant to do series six because we didn't think we would," says the actress, who admits she's due some time out after a manic year. "I'm tired and ready for a rest," says Catz.
She can also indulge her guilty pleasure – Twitter browsing, saying "I've got a Twitter persona but not as me. I just like following people I'm interested in."
Syndication of Doc Martin bolsters viewership, fundraising for pubTV stations
Through science you can predict when water will boil or the effect of gravity on a falling object; but in television, trying to forecast when a particular program will become a hit with viewers is impossible, as the commercial networks learn anew every year.
To break through on public television, a program must first traverse a maze of obstacles just to reach air. Fundraising and commissioning decisions, co-production and licensing deals, marketing strategies and fundraising tactics — some combination of these are required to bring shows into the PBS schedule or into syndication on local public TV stations from San Francisco to Chicago and Bangor, Maine.
This case study focuses on what it took to create a hit with Doc Martin, the most popular syndicated program airing on public TV stations.
Read the rest HERE.
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