Doc Martin begins but series will be the last

Cast your mind back to 2004, if you can.

Yes, it’s a long time ago, a period way before pandemics and lockdowns were a thing, and when Martin Clunes was still trying to shake off the laddish image he acquired while making sitcom Men Behaving Badly.

He was enjoying success with ITV’s William and Mary and had gone some way to reinventing himself with the period crime drama A Is for Acid. But back then, perhaps the most intriguing entry on his post-Gary Strang CV was a small British comedy film called Saving Grace, filmed partly in the Cornish villages of Boscastle and Port Isaac.

Clunes had a supporting role as local medic Dr Martin Bamford. Sky then produced two prequel movies with Bamford as the central character. After that, Bamford underwent a name change to Ellington, completely switched personalities, becoming grumpy rather than chirpy, and voila – the Doc Martin series was born.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and so Clunes and his wife, Philippa Braithwaite, who produces the series via their company Buffalo Pictures, have decided to pull the plug on the show – the run that begins this week will be its last.

They actually announced their decision back in 2020, and expected the episodes to run last year. But, as we all know, certain events changed lots of things for lots of people, including those in the TV world.

On announcing the end of the programme, the couple said: “We have loved making Doc Martin. The series has avid fans both in the UK and throughout the world. However, we now feel that the time has come to say goodbye to Portwenn.”

Despite feeling that the time is right, Clunes is particularly sad about ‘the end’, saying, “I will never get a job as good as this again. I know that in terms of what it has done for us personally, but also just in the sheer joy of it, not being in a city to film it, and being allowed to make something funny in front of a camera, which is my favourite work experience.

“To get to do it with this level of input, to have a voice in decisions, and to have it so loved. Nothing of what I am saying could have been predicted when we started. It was just another case of saying ‘let’s see if we can get this one away’.”

Before we all start blubbing, there is some good news – all the old gang are returning for the finale, and there will be guest appearances from the likes of Fay Ripley, Ben Miller, David Hayman and Rupert Graves.

But what will happen to the characters? Well, that would be telling, but the Doc himself has to make his mind up about his future – was he right to leave medicine, or is it calling him back?

There’s also a Christmas special to look forward to, and after that? Well, who knows – perhaps in another 18 years it’ll be time to return to Portwenn to find out how everyone is getting on. Wouldn’t that be lovely?