 – well, apart from the forthcoming festive special – saw residents of picture-perfect Portwenn preparing to wave goodbye to 'the finest doctor this village has ever had'. Except Martin Clunes's mardy medic suddenly seemed in two minds. The reluctant GP had been offered a cushy academic job at Imperial College, so packed up his stethoscope and got ready to hit the A30. In the nick of time, Rupert Graves arrived as a stockbroker-turned-farmer who'd gone the opposite way, swapping town for country. He became the voice of the dithering Doc's conscience. Why swap ravishing Cornwall, where the locals love you, for grey old London, where the locals might well mug you? Cue an irresistible hour of mild peril involving a lost dog, an infatuated pharmacist and a herd of marauding heifers. Amid all the wobbly lips, our hero remained his stony-faced self. 'You know the Doc,' deadpanned receptionist Morwenna (Jessica Ransom). 'A never-ending flow of emotion.' When she bade her boss farewell, he said: 'Please don't hug me.' Aunt Ruth (Eileen Atkins) had a new theory about the dysfunctional physician. Perhaps he didn't have a phobia of blood after all. He had a phobia of feelings, hence being in denial about departing. 'That's the best way to deal with uncomfortable emotions, isn't it?' agreed PC Penhale (Josh Marquez). 'Push them down into the pit of your stomach and hope they go away.' It's what made Britain great. During its 18 years on-air, Doc Martin has become something of a TV anomaly. It's never dark or edgy. No one gets brutally murdered. There's no melodrama around vast kitchen islands. It's gentle comedy-drama in an era when the genre has fallen out of fashion. Now that era was coming to an end but broadcast bigwigs would do well to learn from its consistently high ratings. Sometimes viewers want warmth, not chills. A happy ending duly arrived. With the help of wife Louisa (the superb Caroline C){kind=link}
During its 18 years on air, Martin Clunes’s Doc has proven TV needn’t be all murder and doom and gloom – will the bigwigs take note?
Would he stay or would he go? The last ever episode of Doc Martin (ITV) – well, apart from the forthcoming festive special – saw residents of picture-perfect Portwenn preparing to wave goodbye to “the finest doctor this village has ever had”. Except Martin Clunes’s mardy medic suddenly seemed in two minds.
The reluctant GP had been offered a cushy academic job at Imperial College, so packed up his stethoscope and got ready to hit the A30. In the nick of time, Rupert Graves arrived as a stockbroker-turned-farmer who’d gone the opposite way, swapping town for country. He became the voice of the dithering Doc’s conscience. Why swap ravishing Cornwall, where the locals love you, for grey old London, where the locals might well mug you?
Cue an irresistible hour of mild peril involving a lost dog, an infatuated pharmacist and a herd of marauding heifers. Amid all the wobbly lips, our hero remained his stony-faced self. “You know the Doc,” deadpanned receptionist Morwenna (Jessica Ransom). “A never-ending flow of emotion.” When she bade her boss farewell, he said: “Please don’t hug me.”
Aunt Ruth (Eileen Atkins) had a new theory about the dysfunctional physician. Perhaps he didn’t have a phobia of blood after all. He had a phobia of feelings, hence being in denial about departing. “That’s the best way to deal with uncomfortable emotions, isn’t it?” agreed PC Penhale (Josh Marquez). “Push them down into the pit of your stomach and hope they go away.” It’s what made Britain great.