Doc Martin - Series 7 on ABC in AUSTRALIA - Finally!!

Recently renewed UK drama Doc Martin is finally back for its seventh season on ABC next month.
It moves from Saturday to Sunday nights from 7:40pm February 7.

In the first episode Martin is in Portwenn, but his wife Louisa is not. After their tumultuous time last series, Louisa has gone to visit her mother in Spain: she wants some time to think and to get some perspective on their relationship. Martin is faced with two questions: will Louisa come back
to him, and what can he do to make sure that she does? He knows he needs to change for the sake of his marriage, and has promised Louisa he will see a therapist in order to help him do so.

Found HERE at TV Tonight.

Producer promises more to come from ‘Doc Martin’ beyond new season

Dr. Martin Ellingham, that blood-phobic, irascible village physician, isn’t done insulting his patients just yet. Season 7 of Doc Martin, premiering in January on public television, won’t be the last.

“There are lots of stories we want to explore, and we want to do them well,” series producer Philippa Braithwaite, wife of star Martin Clunes, told Current. “I think we’ll know when it’s time to end the show.”

That’s great news for fans, so crazy for the hit Britcom that they call themselves “Clunatics.”
Their passion for the quirky characters that populate the fictional English fishing village of Portwenn has catapulted the title to multiple adaptations worldwide: In Austria, there’s Der Bergdoktor; the Netherlands, Dokter Tinus. 

A U.S. version for commercial TV is now in the works, from Executive Producer Marta Kauffman (Friends, Grace and Frankie).

But fans — as well as the cast and crew — are constantly playing a nervous guessing game as to when the original British series could end.

New episodes are filmed every other year from March through July in scenic Port Isaac, a sleepy burg in Cornwall. On its home network of ITV, Doc Martin remains the highest-rated Monday show outside of longtime soap operas.

Braithwaite said each season is created so that it could be the last. “We never know when we finish if we will make another” season, she said, “so we finish deliberately so we could leave it right there.”

She admitted that Season 6 was the exception. Viewers were left with an emotional cliffhanger: Martin’s frustrated wife Louisa (played by Caroline Catz) had retreated to Spain with their infant son James to visit her mother, with no planned return date. Martin was left to wonder if, given his personality quirks, he should be married at all.

Keep reading HERE at Current.

Martin Clunes on final Doc Martin season

Want an idea of just how popular Doc Martin is? When the British drama about a curmudgeonly doctor in a Cornish fishing village advertised for extras in the local Port Isaac press, more than 800 people showed up.

In the giant queue, which snaked around the local church hall, there were no fewer than 150 babies in prams and pushchairs eager to be chosen for the role of the doctor's 11-month-old son, James Henry. That is one well-loved show!

Over six series, Doc Martin s has averaged nine million viewers a week in the UK and star Clunes Clunes, who plays the lovable yet grumpy medic, has won himself an army of die-hard fans. Calling themselves "Clunatics", they lavish gifts on the cast and crew to underline just how much they love the drama. "They are a group of Doc Martin fans who keep thanking us for helping them to make great friendships with other fans around the world. They Skype each other," explains Clunes, 53, who has played the role for 11 years. "When episodes go out, they have discussions on it, and when there are no episodes going out, they have more discussions. There is one woman logging all the ties I wear in the show. She says, 'I don't think I have seen this tie since season two. Mind you, I haven't logged all the season six ties yet'," says the actor, who is married to the show's producer, Philippa Braithwaite. The couple live in rural bliss in Dorset, with their teenage daughter, Emily.

We've had so many presents; paintings of myself and cast members, a fridge magnet of Jimmy, my Jack Russell, paintings of my horses. A lady from Iceland hand-knitted a sweater for me, one for Emily and one for Philippa – and one for Brian the props man because he was nice to her in the pub one night," continues Clunes.

"We were given a big jar of M&Ms with 'DM' printed on each one of them for us all. Some of the Clunatics even found us when we were filming on the moors."

Clunes, who has just spent a very contented four months shooting the latest series in Port Isaac, is touched, and a little taken aback, by the show's global popularity. "When we started making Doc Martin, we could never have imagined it would have this reaction," he says. "We never anticipated this. You can't predict how successful something will be."

As the seventh series kicks off this week, Doc Martin looks set to remain as popular as ever. Dr Martin Ellingham, the GP with the disastrous bedside manner and a morbid fear of blood, has his work cut out in the new series, set in the fictional bucolic seaside hamlet of Portwenn. Louisa (played by Caroline Catz from DCI Banks), the woman he recently married, has had enough of his grouchiness and has walked out. She has taken young James Henry and gone off to stay with her mother in Spain.

Keep reading HERE.

Cheery Clunes couldn't be more different to his Doc Martin character

Martin Clunes is the star and co-steward of Doc Martin, the popular and personally beloved British import about a big-city doctor whose life becomes enmeshed, to his ongoing discomfort, with the people of Portwenn, a Cornish fishing village (He retreats there when a suddenly acquired fear of blood interrupts his surgical career).

It is a comedy of extreme frustration, in which Clunes' Dr. Ellingham, highly competent at his job and self-defeating in life, nevertheless manages to fall in love, with Caroline Catz's schoolteacher Louisa, have a child and marry, in that order (There are many other characters, each frustrated and frustrating in his or her own way). This has happened at a glacial pace and with many excruciating detours – a pace slowed further by the fact that, though the events of one season lead more or less straight into the events of the next, the show now appears only every other year. Martin and Louisa's son, James, born in a 2011 episode, is still a baby.

That on-off, schedule, which involves both Clunes and his producer wife, Philippa Braithwaite, has been adopted in order to not unduly disturb either the life of their daughter or that of Port Isaac (Port Wenn in the series), where the show films; its global success, which has also generated native adaptations in several other countries, has turned the town into something of a tourist destination. It's also because, Clunes says, "We'd never get the scripts in shape in any less time. It's not an easy show to write. However much time is never enough".

Though the character he plays on television is serious to a fault, Clunes himself is a cheery sort who finds amusement everywhere; indeed, he can barely speak for laughing.

It's your show, you're somewhat in charge of the character. But to what degree is he in charge of you?

That's a good question. I can tell off the page just reading it to myself when scripts come in and somebody's just gauged it wrong. Like if he apologizes, or uses the F-word – we don't go there. It sounds so wanky to say he lives, but I'm also very aware that I'm motivated by a huge desire to fall over and walk into things to make people laugh. You do get into a groove, which is great, when you get to act with the same people a lot. Like with, Caroline Catz – it's like a duet, you're like a duo jamming together.

Keep reading HERE at stuff.co.nz

The week in TV: Doc Martin

Doc Martin represents one of my guiltier pleasures, in that I watch it in what I think of as my time “off”, freed from doing the serious important note-taking shtick or being asked to struggle professionally to fathom the enduring appeal of Downton. The Big Bang Theory, The Wright Stuff, reruns of Jonathan Creek or Endeavour – all are just-for-me equivalents of warm mismatched socks, a hot-water bottle and burnt bubbling cheap cheese on toast. Bliss.

So I dread the day Martin Ellingham – his surname an anagram of showrunner Dominic Minghella, is this interesting? (No, Ed.) – gets all worthy or political or even relevant, and I have to review it seriously. And, the saints be blessed, that still looks roundly unlikely from this sofa. We’re still freely invited, 11 years on and at the close of the latest series, to giggle smugly at Cornwall, and what immense fun that is. Those who have been there know that the inhabitants live in perhaps the most glorious corner of God’s green earth, and there should be payback, so we’re probably entitled to regard the Cornubian batholith as the Land That Education Forgot. Almost everyone be a moron.

Bert Large is a cunning 20-chinned moron. Son Al is a misunderstood moron. Mrs Tishell is a comedy escapee from The Archers, and a moron in italics. Sexy Morwenna is a trainee moron (yet there’s hope, and, left to her own devices, she correctly divines that 100% of those waiting for the absent doctor’s curt ministrations are slouchy malingerers or alcoholics). King Captain Moron is, of course, PC Joe, who in this final series episode managed to louse up in every way imaginable short of snagging his own pancreas in a bear-trap. Actor John Marquez deserves great credit: not since Father Dougal has there been on our screens a more credible, human, moron.

 In the end, after some relatively serious business involving the Doc’s kidnapping, serious mainly because one doesn’t ever dick about with Gemma Jones possessed of the “nice” end of a shotgun and a righteous wrath, Louisa and Martin were gently reunited. “I think I’ve been a little bit obsessed with people having to be normal. But they’re not, are they?” You said it, girl from Cornwall. Sweeter, more seriously, “I know you weren’t going to let me down,” which is very much all a girl wants. But… only sometimes. Hence the clever personal tension underwriting the relationship at the heart of this series, and which, apart from the sweet morons and Martin Clunes’s deadpan perfections, lends it its entirely fathomable appeal. More, more.

Found HERE at the Guardian.

Much the same thing....Spain? Are you sure?!

Doc Martin – ITV, 9pm

DOC Martin has been held hostage so many times, the surprise is PC Penhale hasn't engaged himself as his personal bodyguard.

Tonight he's back in the clutches of yet another crazed villager. Although, handily for the last episode of the series, having time to himself, albeit unwanted, does give him an opportunity to reflect on his and Louisa's future. A moment of realisation he undergoes at the end of every season, before the next one starts, amidst thudding inevitability, with the couple right back at the beginning.

As it stands, Louisa is supposed to be leaving for Spain. Soon, however, she is amidst a rescue party of villagers hellbent on setting the, er, much-loved, Doc free.

Found HERE. 

It's strange to think that Martin Clunes is now more well-known for Doc Martin than he would be for, say, Men Behaving Badly. Crazy. Anyway, the finale in the series sees Louisa worrying about Dr Timoney's suggestion that she and Martin aren't meant to be together might have prompted him to leave Portwenn for good. Calling on Ruth, Morwenna and Janice for help, she tries to track the down the missing GP, with no luck. However, what Dr Ellingham's friends and family fail to realise is that he is actually trapped up at the Winton farm, where desperate wife Annie is trying to coerce him into performing a life-saving operation on her terminally ill husband Jim. Meanwhile, Ruth and Bert seek out Al to offer him a proposition regarding the whisky and the B&B

Found HERE.

Caroline Catz: 'Even though Louisa and Doc Martin love each other it may not be sensible to have a relationship'

Caroline Catz reveals it’s make or break time for Doc Martin and Louisa in the final episode of the Cornish comedy-drama on Monday.

Caroline, who plays Louisa, told What's on TV: “Louisa and the Doc (Martin Clunes) have been on big journey in their relationship during this series. Then, true to Doc Martin, there’s a mad, interesting and insane situation that takes them on this other journey!”

What’s on TV can reveal things take an unexpected turn in the Ellingham’s relationship when Mrs Annie Winton, played by Gemma Jones, kidnaps the Doc!

The Doc’s priorities quickly change from his relationship to survival when a house call to Annie Winton (Gemma) turns nasty. Terrified of husband Jim dying from his malignant tumour Annie demands Doc treats Jim at home so he doesn’t have to go to hospital. 

Meanwhile, Louisa is left wondering why her estranged husband hasn’t turned up for their make-or-break dinner…

But while everyone else thinks the Doc has done a runner, Louisa isn’t so sure. She enlists the help of Pc Penhale (John Marquez) and retraces Martin’s steps to the Winton farm, where Annie’s got her gun!

Will it be curtains for the couple, one way or the other?

Caroline explained: ‘Martin has this great integrity. He’s a real anti-hero in a way, and has his own quirky charisma, which Louisa loves.

“She puts up with him because he’s a kind, considerate person who finds it really difficult to express himself. But even though they love each other it may not be sensible for them to have a relationship.”

The final episode of Doc Martin screens on ITV, Monday, November 2 at 9pm.

Found HERE at What's on TV.

Nicholas Lumley in Doc Martin

I had a coffee this morning with charming Hungerford actor Nicholas Lumley to find out what his experience was like acting in the popular Doc Martin series with Martin Clunes.

“The casting call was for an eccentric old farmer with an accent based loosely in the West country. At the audition the director told me just to ‘talk pirate’. I was delighted to get the part, as there is always lots of competition.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the sun always shines in Doc Martin. This is deliberate – any grey skies are edited out in post-production. This creates a holiday destination atmosphere on set even when it is wet and windy filming.

Caroline and I had a lovely stay for four days in The Slipway Hotel in Port Isaac opposite the harbour. The hotel is always in the episodes, besides Mrs Tickle chemist shop – which in real life is a sweety gift shop that sells Doc Martin souvenirs. Most of the filming takes place at a farm near the town.

I was asked if I minded having the caravan on the farm as a dressing room. It wasn’t very big but Sigourney Weaver had used it the week before…(she had met Martin on a chat show and asked to be in the series which is very popular in the States). The doctor surgery and most of the interiors have been constructed in a large barn on this farm.

I have long been a fan of Martin Clunes so it was a delight to meet him. He came and introduced himself when I was in make-up having my prosthetic goitre put on (which took an hour). Despite his on-screen grumpy character, Martin is always charming and funny.

Keep reading HERE.

TV Times Cover

Found HERE. The article pages can be found in a post below!

Doc Martin's Caroline Catz can't control her laughter after dipping her head into bucket of cold water while filming chilly scenes on Brighton beach

She's in the middle of filming a brand new season of much-loved British comedy-drama Doc Martin.

And it looked as though Caroline Catz wasn't going to be forgetting her Tuesday on set in a hurry as the star shot some chilly scenes on Brighton Beach. 

Despite the harrowing temperatures along the British coastline, the 45-year-old star was seen dipping her head into a bucket of cold water as the cameras rolled. 

Attempting to shield herself from the cold, the actress sported a palm print wet suit top, skinny jeans and knee-high black boots.

Though her chilly ordeal clearly called for an extra layer as a female companion was seen helping the British star cover up beneath a long blue puffer jacket, while her wet brunette locks were wrapped into a towel. 

Fortunately, Caroline appeared to see the funny side as she laughed incessantly while walking along the pebbled beach.   

Before her damp tresses were hidden beneath a towel, Caroline was sure to set tongues wagging as she leaned over and ran her fingers through the ends of her hair.

Meanwhile, the mother-of-two previously opened up about her role on the popular TV series, and insisted that it's one of the best projects she's ever done.  

'There is no reason in the world not to do this job. It’s too good and too much fun not to,’ she told You magazine in September.

The show sees Caroline star as headteacher Louisa Martin, the wife of the strangely lovable Doctor Martin Ellingham, played by Martin Clunes.

Continuing to gush about the show, the star said: 'For me, one of the appeals of Doc Martin is that it inhabits an entirely credible make-believe world with its own rules, sense of time, space and even fashion.

‘It’s a bit like Narnia, or even at times The Prisoner! There’s this amazing, expansive landscape, which feels so free and open, yet you’re constantly drawn back to the epicentre of the village, where you can’t even blow your nose without everyone knowing about it. And you can’t get away, no matter how hard you try,’ she continued.

 

 Found HERE at The Daily Mail (with more photos!).

9:00pm, Monday, 2 November 2015, ITV

It's make or break for Portwenn's most meant-to-be couple tonight as they face their future in a tense and gripping episode. Deciding they can't bear another second of couples therapy, Martin and Louisa vow to make a final decision about their relationship over dinner. But a couple of unhinged villagers have other ideas and Martin is held at gunpoint as a worried wife (Gemma Jones) demands a more optimistic prognosis for her terminally ill husband. Clearly Martin is unamused and incredulous. Can he talk some sense into her before Louisa gives up on their marriage? It might be a while till another series of Doc Martin – please give us a happy ending, Mr Clunes!

Found HERE at What's on TV.

The Impossible Dream

From this week's TV Times Magazine. A very big thank you to SR for the scan.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Episode 8 - The Doctor is Out - Trailer

Series 7 - 8. The Doctor is Out (Same SPOILER content, different SPOILER picture)

Louisa worries Dr Timoney's suggestion that she and Martin aren't meant to be together might have prompted him to leave Portwenn for good. Calling on Ruth, Morwenna and Janice for help, she tries to track the down the missing GP, with no luck. However, what Dr Ellingham's friends and family fail to realise is that he is actually trapped up at the Winton farm, where desperate wife Annie is trying to coerce him into performing a life-saving operation on her terminally ill husband Jim. Meanwhile, Ruth and Bert seek out Al to offer him a proposition regarding the whisky and the B&B. Medical drama, starring Martin Clunes. Last in the series.

Found HERE at RadioTimes.

Sigourney Weaver on Doc Martin, ITV, review: 'bizarre'

The cosy and sometimes idyllic world of Doc Martin (ITV) often throws up peculiar scenarios, none more so than a cameo appearance by the star of the Alien film franchise, Sigourney Weaver. Playing an American tourist searching for her family roots in Cornwall, and for a prescription-only medicine from the local chemist, her encounter with Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) in the latest episode wasn’t so much enigmatic as evanescent – and verged on the bizarre.

She appeared from nowhere, announced her name, Beth Traywick, to pharmacist Mrs Tishell (to which Mrs T, somewhat bafflingly in the circumstances, replied: “Yes, I know”) and proceeded to act out the sort of clichés of transatlantic boorishness that we haven’t really associated with American tourists since the Seventies. Sadly, Beth’s medical complaint didn’t involve anything as eye-catchingly dramatic as an evil alien parasite living in her gut. It was mild asthma instead, and after another pointlessly waspish encounter with the Doc she was gone. We can only hope her donation of a book on radical feminism to receptionist Morwenna (Jessica Ransom) might yet prove fruitful. 

Apart from that, the episode wended its whimsical way with typical aplomb. The story was bracketed by Martin and Louisa’s (Caroline Catz) encounters with their marriage counsellor, psychiatrist Dr Timoney (Emily Bevan), who herself went doolally after hurting her head in a car accident.

Keep reading HERE at the Telegraph.

Doc Martin meets Sigourney Weaver as Alien star appears in BBC drama - best TV cameo ever?

Just what is Ripley doing in Cornwall?

Monday night's Doc Martin saw Sigourney Weaver make a superb cameo in the British comedy-drama.

The Hollywood A-lister, who is known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien movies, turned up as American tourist Beth Traywick in the ITV programme.

The grumpy doctor, played by Martin Clunes, didn't even crack a smile despite being asked to by Weaver's character.

It seems while travelling the world Beth need to stop in the seaside town to get patched up by Doc Martin.

It wasn't long before his British manner was lost on her.

Keep reading HERE at the Mirror.

Episode 8 - The Doctor is Out (SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!)

As we reach the final episode in Series 7, Martin finds himself in a very unusual situation: trapped by Annie Winton, who desperately wants him to try and save her husband, Jim Winton, despite Jim having been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Annie insists that there must be something that Martin can do to help. Meanwhile, Ruth and Bert have a proposition to put to Al, regarding the whisky and the B&B. Louisa is very worried about Martin, and wonders if the breakdown of their therapy could have led him to decide to leave Portwenn for good. She calls on Morwenna, Janice and Ruth for help, but none of them have seen Martin. Penhale drives Louisa up to the Winton Farm, where despite Annie trying to persuade them otherwise, they discover Martin. Now reunited with Louisa, Martin manages to eventually find Jim and perform a life‐saving operation on him. But is it too late for Martin and Louisa to also save their marriage?

Found HERE.

Catz out of the bag on Doc Martin

CAROLINE Catz is frequently asked why her character tolerates Doc Martin’s grumpy manner. “People say to me ‘why does she put up with him’. She puts up with him because she loves him, and he’s a really kind and considerate person who finds it really difficult to express himself, “ she says.

“You know he is good because you can see the way he is, and he has this great integrity. He is a real anti-hero in a way, in a great way. He has his own quirky charisma which she loves. I think it is interesting watching these two people try and be together. They are obviously attracted to one another. It is not sensible for them to have a relationship, but they love one another and that is a really common story. You see it all over the place. How many people are perfectly matched in every way?”

The Doc has been seeking the help of a psychotherapist to try to solve his problems and make their marriage work. But tonight Louisa is asked to join other couples in therapy sessions.

"This is quite funny because Dr Timoney (Emily Bevan) is a very good therapist and gets underneath what is really going on between the two of them, and I think that will be really satisfying for the audience.”

The production had worked with a real couples therapist, who had studied the characters and the dynamic between them, before writing the scripts.

“What we learn from this series is that they are probably going to drive each other mad for ever more. They do love each other very much. They go on a big journey in their relationship and with what is going to happen to them. Then true to the series there are so many mad, interesting and insane situations that take them on this other journey as well. All the things that Dr Timoney unearths all connect up. It’s not like we find out new information. It is all information we have heard before in previous episodes: a little bit about her dad, a bit about her mum.

Keep reading HERE.

TV Pick of the Day: Doc Martin, ITV, October 26

As with most picturesque Cornish seaside towns, Portwenn is no stranger to visitors. Over the past few years, the fishing village which Martin Ellingham calls home has welcomed the likes of Ben Miller, Chris O'dowd and most recently Caroline Quentin.

However, even the busy streets of Portwenn real-life alter-ego, Port Isaac, have probably never witnessed such a throng of stars. Not only do British talent Kelly Adams (Mr Selfridge) and Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones' Diary) grace the narrow streets tonight, there is also a cameo role from Hollywood A-lister Sigourney Weaver (Aliens). Doc Martin star Martin Clunes revealed that Weaver was a big fan of the comedy drama and jumped at the chance of featuring in some small way. Tonight she briefly plays an American tourist who bumps into the grumpy medic. It's no wonder he's in that mood either.

The doctor and Louisa (Caroline Catz) receive an intriguing invitation from Dr Timoney (Emily Bevan) to attend additional therapy sessions. This aspect of the current series has provided laughs and insightful moment in abundance, and it is pleasing to realise the cast have enjoyed those scenes as much as we have.

Catz revealed: "You really do feel like you are in the session, and you go to the heart of what Dr Timoney is trying to tease out of both of them and you can see how difficult it is for them to deal with it. It is putting them in extreme and uncomfortable situations which makes it feel fresh."
For once though, it seems Dr Timoney may be on the receiving end of assistance when she is involved in a car accident outside the school. Inside the building there is trouble of a different kind when the new art teacher (guest-star Adams) angers Louisa with her rather unorthodox methods.

Keep reading HERE at Western Morning News.

The Doctor is Out

Found HERE.