Filming starts on Doc Martin Series 8 (Martin Clunes)

British Comedy Guide
Tuesday 21st March 2017, 9:18am

Filming is underway on Series 8 of hit ITV comedy drama Doc Martin.

ITV has confirmed that filming has just begun on location in Port Isaac, the picturesque Cornish village which doubles as the fictional sleepy Portwenn.

All the regular members of the cast are returning to the popular series, as crews begin filming eight new episodes.

Martin Clunes reprises his role as Dr Martin Ellingham, the GP with a brusque bedside manner and a phobia of blood; with Caroline Catz playing his wife and local school headmistress, Louisa Ellingham.

After having therapy to save their marriage in the last series, they face the challenge of living happily together with their baby James Henry.

Martin Clunes says: "I'm thrilled to be back on the beautiful North Cornish coast to shoot Series 8 of Doc Martin. The Doc is as obstinate as ever, but he is trying his best to be a better husband and father."

Also returning to the series is Dame Eileen Atkins who plays the central character's formidable Aunt Ruth, a woman who is beginning to doubt the wisdom of going into business with Bert Large and his son Al.

Ian McNeice is back to play Bert Large, with Joe Absolom as Al. Bert is desperate to make his home distilled whisky a success, but there's a shortage of customers willing to buy. Meanwhile guests are not exactly flocking to Al's bed and breakfast, and he fears he will have to close the doors for good.

Meanwhile wedding bells are ringing for unlucky-in-love PC Joe Penhale, played by John Marquez. In the last series he popped the question to the Doc's nanny Janice Bone, played by Robyn Addison, and is now looking forward to marital bliss. Will the course of true love run smoothly at last for Portwenn's police officer?


https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/2506/doc_martin_series_8/

Caroline Catz: 'Juggling work and family life is difficult'

EXPRESS
Published: 06:08, Sun, February 15, 2015
By SIMON BUTTON

 “But that’s what’s brilliant about this job,” she beams. “You get to dip into other people’s lives, doing other things, researching, finding things out, and it becomes all-consuming as you try to immerse yourself into the mind-set of another person. That’s really brilliant. You almost get the best of both worlds.”

Like so many chameleon-like actors, it’s easy to be taken aback at how different she is in reality from the characters she plays. From tough-talking Helen Morton in DCI Banks to feisty Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin, it’s understandable to think Caroline will be equally frosty. In reality, she is softly spoken and very different from the characters she plays – and she loves them all the more for that. 

“Obviously there are elements of yourself you bring to roles, but Louisa and Helen are both so different and that’s what I enjoy – playing roles that are diverse,” says Caroline. 

“You immerse yourself in a new character and I’m not sure which bits of myself go in and which don’t.”

That, she suggests, is for others to decide. Caroline, 44, admits Helen probably isn’t the easiest person to live with.

“And when the new series starts, she’s had some big, big problems with her husband, so it’s going to be interesting…” 

“Louisa is a fantastic character because she’s so direct and she doesn’t care what people think about her. There’s a great liberation in playing a character who is very forthright and speaks her mind. She’s clumsy and blunt, while at the same time she’s just trying to get to the bottom of things,” Caroline says. “She’s quite practical and it’s not like she’s being unkind – she’s just trying to sort through what she says and all the irrelevancies and get right down to the nub of the matter. I find that very entertaining.”

The seeds of a career in acting were planted early for Caroline, whose parents took her to see shows at Manchester venues such as the acclaimed Royal Exchange Theatre and the Opera House. 

“I was so lucky to have that exposure to stuff and to be taken by my folks to see these amazing productions,” she says. “Going to the theatre was the thing that did it for me and especially going to the Royal Exchange where, incidentally, I’ve never worked, but I’d like to one day.”

When, or if, she treads the boards in her hometown’s most prestigious venue, it won’t be under her real name. She was born Caroline Caplan and when she started working assumed it was cool to keep the moniker. Then someone urged her to give Equity a call and she was told the name was already taken. “And I was like, ‘What?’” she says.

As Caroline is Jewish, she wanted a Jewish surname, and decided Catz had a nice ring to it. Studying at RADA in the days before mobile phones, she popped into a phone box. “Someone had drawn little cats everywhere, so that was my final decision on the matter,” she laughs. “You’d think you’d spend days, months or years agonising over a new name, but I didn’t even have anything in reserve. It wasn’t thought out – it took about three seconds.”

So the name Catz wasn’t in homage to Katz Delicatessen in New York – where Meg Ryan famously faked an orgasm in the movie When Harry Met Sally? Caroline yelps at the idea! “No, but funnily enough we were in New York recently. We didn’t eat at Katz, but we took some photos. I loved New York. It was my first proper visit and I was absolutely blown away by it.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/557740/DCI-Banks-Caroline-Catz-interview

Doc Martin quiz: 10 questions to test how well you know the grumpy GP drama

MIRROR
Aug 01, 2014 19:36 By Karen Hyland



His bedside manner with both his patients and his loved ones leaves a lot to be desired, but there's still something rather lovable about Doc Martin.

TAKE THE TEST HERE

(it takes a moment to download, and one of the questions has three WRONG answers - not real fans there!)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doc-martin-quiz-10-questions-3949074#ixzz39EqRUebm 
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Doc Martin: ‘Departure’ – Series 6 Episode 8 (SPOILERS)

THE INDEPENDENT
By Lina Talbot
Last updated: Tuesday, 22 October 2013 at 10:42 am



Spoiler alert: This review assumes you have already watched Episode 8 of the current series.


Despite the title to this episode, viewers can be relieved that nothing hints at a real-life departure from the Doc Martin cast. Apart from Claire Bloom as the wicked grandmother, that is… Martin finally summons the strength to have ‘that talk’ his mother has been waiting for, and sees straight through her scheming. She did make a basic medical error in her dishonest account of his father’s passing, after all.

Writer Jack Lothian delivers a gripping finale to the current series, even weaving in new suspense with an unexpected medical condition for Louisa. Something has to stop her flying away, since the exchanges between her and Martin are as futile as ever. But her departure for the airport triggers some sensation in Martin Clunes’ obdurate doctor who, possibly confusing emotion for illness, strides off to seek advice from Ruth. She is apparently now the village go-to person for all manner of problems.

Down at the Large’s, the story continues of Al’s quest for his own source of income and, with it, independence from his ‘know it better’ father. Ian McNeice manages to make Bert endearing even while he rains unreasonable demands on his son. Later he proposes “BAR” (Bert, Al and Ruth) as the name for Al’s business, then claims to be just winding Al up. Not always been the case, eh Bert?

But the awkward Al, played for sympathy by Joe Absolom, must scamper down a grassy bank in scooter helmet, suit and tie, to pitch his business idea to Eileen Atkins’ implacable Ruth. Has Alan Sugar tried that on his protégés? As the camera sweeps along the overgrown lakeside, Al suggests a barbecue with the freshly caught fish – and I’m sold. The lake may not be the largest, but I’m prepared to believe.

Ruth and Al’s two encounters are my favourite of several heartfelt one-on-one scenes this week. I trust there will be more such odd couple moments in the next series.

Comic sketches include a running gag with the New York cops outfit chosen by Penhale (Joe Marquez) as his fancy dress for Bert’s party – of course. This culminates at the airport where, surprise surprise, he cannot convince the official that he actually is a policeman. Best comedy line comes from Martin, objecting to the travel agent down the phone: “No I won’t hold!”

Ruth gives Morwenna (Jessica Ransom) cause to pause, as she lets slip her perception that Morwenna and Al are “involved”. Nope, they’re still getting there… Morwenna then engages in a wonderfully straight exchange with her pal, that Ruth working in psychiatry is not the same as being psychic.

The big climax commences with Martin peering at Louisa’s CT scan, which reveals an arteriovenous malformation. This is an unstable link between blood vessels at different pressures. Yes, these can bleed and do need treatment, but there’s no rush for emergency surgery, especially in early autumn when experienced surgeons may be on holiday and the new intake not yet up to scratch – clearly the case in Truro. And just because you have an AVM doesn’t mean your headache following a row with your husband comes from a bleed.9


READ MORE HERE:http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/10/21/doc-martin-doc-martin-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98departure%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-series-6-episode-8/

Martin Clunes: Fans reeling as car crash horror hits Doc Martin (spoiler)

MAIL ON LINE

By LAURA COX

PUBLISHED: 17:59 EST, 15 October 2013 | UPDATED: 03:16 EST, 16 October 2013

Fans of family-friendly TV series Doc Martin turned against the programme’s makers after a violent car crash formed a plot twist in the latest instalment of the usually sedate show.

Many of the six million viewers – including children – were left horrified after Doc Martin’s wife was unexpectedly hit by a car, prompting many to vent their distaste on social networking sites.

Following the accident, which left Louisa Glasson, played by Caroline Catz, with a broken collar bone, a viewer wrote: ‘I wasn’t expecting that! Not sure my nerves can take it!’

Another wrote: ‘Louisa getting hit by that car looked so real.’

Others said: ‘That car hitting Louisa made me scream out loud!!’

'It is not the sort of thing you would expect from this series and seems to be following a recent trend towards harder more unpleasant story lines as we have seen in the normally gentle Downton Abbey.

'This is not entertainment.’

And Vivienne Pattison, director of  MediaWatch, urged broadcasters to consider using warnings ahead of unusually graphic scenes.

Last night an ITV spokesman said: ‘Details of the storyline had been trailed in advance of transmission.’
In the show, Louisa Glasson was seen chasing after her husband Doctor Martin Ellingham, played by Martin Clunes, after they had rowed.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2462025/Doc-Martin-After-Downtons-rape-viewers-horror-plot-twist-latest-instalment-family-show.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Martin Clunes: Doc Martin: ‘Nobody Likes Me’ (Spoiler alert: this blog is for those who have already seen Episode 4 of Series 6)

THE INDEPENDENT
22 September, 2013
By Lina Talbot

A fast-moving episode this week presents at least six unusual medical cases to be diagnosed by Dr Martin (Martin Clunes) while he laments the stupidity of his flock. He may leave his patients unsure whether to be grateful or offended, but many a viewer must yearn for such an adept GP in their own local surgery.

Which is what this series does so well – it entices viewers to imagine themselves living in this magical place: Britain may be proud of its heritage of tight-knit provincial communities with their unconventional characters but, nowadays, where do most people live? In suburban estates or city blocks or towns hit by the recession with bleak high streets. Yes, I’ve been watching Robert Peston. Small wonder so many tune in to escape for an hour to idyllic Portwenn.

And indeed the main storyline starts with Dr Ruth (Eileen Atkins) moving into the village. From next door emerges John Moysey, disagreeable recluse, played by the redoubtable Ronald Pickup. Ah! – I anticipate plenty of interaction to savour between these two. Moysey quickly makes his stance against neighbourliness clear, but Ruth cannot help feeling concerned about him and keeping an eye out.

Meanwhile Bert Large (the splendid Ian McNeice) is clucking around his new lodger and ex-flame, the pharmacist Jennifer Cardew (Annabelle Apsion). What has she done with a needle in the bathroom, which she needs to conceal later behind an eye patch? Bert’s son Al (Joe Absolom) also feels in the mood as he watches tourist couples in the streets. But when his new landlady Morwenna (Jessica Ransom) tries to assist, her cute but cool mate Janice (Katie Moore) produces a put-down to give many a viewer pause for thought. What a bi-atch!



I wish Caroline Catz would be given more to do as Louisa than find fault and nag… This week she has a showdown with Martin over James Henry’s need to be taken to the babies’ play circle. Since she cannot go, he must. Oh no – torture by mothers and babes! Martin Clunes pulls off a tour de force as the unamused doc manages to restrain himself from a sociopathic outburst whilst being goaded by childish toys and singsong. For me, the highlight of the episode – the good doc does not bow to social convention. How I wish I could be more like him.


READ MORE HERE: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/09/23/doc-martin-nobody-likes-me-series-6-episode-4/

The Doc Martin effect (MARTIN CLUNES)

CORNWALL LIFE
Friday, September 13, 2013
2:42 PM

Thirty years ago Port Isaac was just another picturesque village on the North Cornwall coast exuding an air of innocence. Along Fore Street pretty colour-washed cottages leaned against each other facing out across the harbour. The Grade 11 listed Old School House was a place to enjoy a cream tea and the original Life Boat Station building housed the Post Office and served as general store. In the 1980s Port Isaac had its own chemist, The Drugstore, with a connecting door to the adjoining miniscule Fish Shop, which served the best fish and chips and Cornish pasties for miles around to a steady stream of visitors.

Further down the road, a delightful couple, who had ‘emigrated’ from Surrey years before, ran a charming old fashioned clothes shop and jovial Eric was the village’s unofficial poet laureate writing poems for Trio, the local magazine. A few yards down the gently sloping main road, was Rose Hill, where the corner cottage and gift shop, ‘Demelza’, was named for the much loved heroine of the ‘Poldark’ series filmed locally. Close by on the bend was Squeezy Belly Alley, a tiny lane measuring eighteen inches at its most narrow. It enticed folk to peer through the shadows, to the entrance to the inner village - still crammed with former fishermen’s cottages of all shapes and sizes, built upon hills and down tiny lanes, bearing names like The Birdcage and The Pump.

But Port Isaac has changed – and who has changed it? A grumpy, fictional character called Doc Martin, who arrived in 2004.

Today instead of Barclays Bank which opened once a week, there is a shop selling Doc Martin merchandise and memorabilia.

During filming of the series Port Isaac transforms into Port Wenn, where the surly doctor can be seen striding back and forth, insulting everyone.

When filming was halted on Fore Street because of rain, a couple, sheltering beneath an umbrella, explained how they had travelled from New Zealand to see ‘Port Wenn’, never dreaming they would be watching the filming of a new episode. ‘Oh look’ squealed the woman ‘There’s the Doc!’ Actor Martin Clune, beneath a massive umbrella, was yawning widely, unaware that he was being watched, videoed and photographed by awe-struck fans.

Despite not all being happy about the filming, mostly they agree the popular Doc Martin series has cheered up the appearance of the ancient village. Cottages have been refreshed – and prices quadrupled. The small house used as Doc Martin’s surgery recently sold for more than £600.000! Now a signpost directs tourists who wish to photograph the house! Doc Martin has introduced the world to one of the most beautiful Cornish locales, convincing tourists to spend their money there.


READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE: http://www.cornwalllife.co.uk/out-about/places/the_doc_martin_effect_1_2463522

Doc Martin: Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz shine in the return of this escapist comedy drama (SPOILERS)

UNREALITY PRIMETIME

September 2nd, 2013 by Matt D.

With the possible exception of New Tricks, all of the drama I seem to watch at the moment is quite dark in tone. From Southcliffe to What Remains via The Returned and Top of The Lake; all the recent drama has a fairly sinister tone with very little humour thrown in for good measure. I feel there needs to be a lot more of a good balance in drama and that’s where something like Doc Martin comes in. Though I’ve never followed the Martin Clunes drama particularly closely, it seems that it has a lighter tone to the majority of its contemporaries. Indeed, tonight’s episode has very little plot structure and plays out more like a comedy of errors than an installment of a drama series.

Anybody who’s seen the preview pictures for this new series will know that Doc Martin Ellingham is finally getting married to his long time sweetheart Louisa Glasson. In true Doc style he doesn’t spend a lot of time getting ready nor has he bothered recruiting a best man. However, nobody has told PC Penhale about Doc’s lack of a best man as he resumes the responsibility both at the wedding and later at the reception. As the gathered guests, along with those who won’t invited, wait impatiently, Martin realises that Louisa might not show up after all. Just as he’s about to leave the church, she arrives and ushers him back up the aisle. In his usual impatient style, Martin goes ahead of the vicar’s instructions and slots the ring on his new wife’s finger in record time. It is only when Martin is asked to kiss his new bride that he really starts to smile and we see that Louisa is the one thing in his life that will probably make him happy. However, this happiness doesn’t last very long and Martin gets frustrated when he learns that a lot of the villagers at his wedding reception haven’t been invited. In fact a lot of the assembled guests have only come along to the event in the hope of getting a free consultation with the Doctor on his wedding day. But Louisa is able to calm down Martin long enough to get him to participate in the first dance with her and she is shocked to discover that he is a more competent dancer than her. The people of Portwen later reveal they have a surprise for the newlyweds in the form of a one-night stay in the lodge where Bert spent his honeymoon. While James is looked after by Ruth, Martin and Louisa spend a night in the middle of nowhere without any distractions. However, very soon, things start going wrong.



READ MORE HERE: http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/doc-martin-martin-clunes-and-caroline-catz-shine-in-the-return-of-this-escapist-comedy-drama/

TV review: Doc Martin - Spoilers

SHROPSHIRE STAR
September 3, 2013

There can’t be many bridegrooms who head for church for their wedding straight after conducting a gynaecological examination, but then I guess regular viewers have come to expect the unexpected of this ITV drama series.

Yes, the big day had come round – again – for Doctor Martin Ellingham and his bride-to-be Louisa.

Lazier writers could easily have devoted this first in a new run to an hour of ‘will they, won’t they’ wed.

Instead, following a typically stilted performance during the ceremony from Martin Clunes as the oh-so-awkward doc, the show cleverly transformed itself from something akin to Four Weddings and a Funeral to a proper good bloodbath via various genres en route.

Wonderfully wobbly-necked Bert Large, played by Ian McNeice, is catalyst to all manner of calamity in the opening episode.

Bert is perhaps the show’s greatest asset, with his wooly hat making him look like a character from 1970s children’s favourite The Flumps.

His plan to whisk away the happy couple to a remote lodge goes to plan – except for driving away with doc and Louisa’s belongings, languishing in a suitcase still in the boot of his vintage car.

So, left to their own devices in the isolated setting, the doc and Louisa – or should that be Frank and Betty Spencer?– crack open a bottle of champagne and settle in for the evening with a romantic open fire.



Yes, it all starts to go a bit ‘Some Mothers do ‘ave ‘em’ when the dreamy setting becomes a little less enticing as the room fills with smoke and the fire belches a soot cloud at the happy couple.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2013/09/03/tv-review-doc-martin/

Martin Clunes: 'Doc Martin is the last good job in television! - Also confirms a Season 7!

WHATS ON TV
9:56am, Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Doc Martin star Martin Clunes talks to TV Times magazine about Louisa and Martin finally getting married, and his worries about viewers turning off the hit ITV series when it returns on Monday...

How does it feel now that Doc Martin and Louisa have finally reached this moment?
"We knew that from the word go, people latched onto the romantic intent with these two, so every time we sit down to think of a new series and where things will go, that’s the thing that gets put in place first – how are Martin and Louisa going to get through the next series? And then the rest just bolts on. It seems to be the central thing that people tune in for."

These two have been off and on since the very first series! Are you worried about what fans will think now that they're actually getting married?
"Viewers might just switch off! 'We don’t need to watch any more!' I don’t know – we’ve never gone in for happy resolutions. It’s always dysfunctional. But it is an unusual first episode, because it’s the wedding and honeymoon and it’s just the two of us. I think people will like it."

We hear the wedding pretty much goes to plan… What happens next?
"We try and disappear from our own wedding reception because the villagers have all just come for the free cider!"

What else happens for Doc Martin this series, aside from the marriage?
"His blood phobia returns, and his mum comes back. That’s worse than any phobia!"


Read more at http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/doc-martin/news/martin-clunes-doc-martin-is-the-last-good-job-in-television#MKir9THLrkEWyvfS.99

Martin Clunes: 'It doesn’t sound promising, a show about a cranky doctor’ Martin Clunes talks about his surprise at Doc Martin’s success

TELEGRAPH
By Daphne Lockyer7:00AM BST 25 Aug 2013

Martin Clunes is turning a blind eye to the Doc Martin “stalker” who lurks in the choir stalls of St Nonna’s, a pretty Norman church in the Cornish village of Altarnun. While he poses for pictures with his co-star, Caroline Catz, the matronly gatecrasher – who has flown in from Texas to loiter around the set – is trying to merge into the background.

“Don’t say anything,” Clunes whispers. “She’s not doing any harm.”

Later, as we sit in the pews together, he explains his tolerance of rubber-neckers. “As long as they don’t get in the way of filming, it’s not a problem. And without the fans, where would we be?”

Doc Martin appears to attract an extreme kind of fan, and the fishing village of Port Isaac (doubling for the fictitious Portwenn) where the show is mostly filmed, is running alive with them. They applaud when Clunes arrives, and shop for syringe-shaped pens and mugs decorated with a shot of the grumpy medic at a Doc Martin store.

“People come from all over the place – Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America. I think it’s wonderful that they have such a strong reaction to the show.”



If you’re not one of the eight million British viewers who have tuned in to the five series that have run since 2003, Doc Martin features an unlikely hero, Dr Martin Ellingham, a curmudgeonly medic with a blood phobia and zero bedside manner. With its Cornish backdrop, gently ironic English humour, and a stellar cast of thesps that includes Dame Eileen Atkins, it represents a British idyll that, like Downton Abbey, the rest of the world embraces: 208 countries – including, most recently, Iran – have either bought rights to the original show or are making their own versions.

“Presumably none of the female characters in the Iranian Doc Martin will be allowed to speak, or drive, or go to school or work,” chuckles Clunes, 51.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10263552/Martin-Clunes-It-doesnt-sound-promising-a-show-about-a-cranky-doctor.html

Martin Clunes: ITV Sets Premiere Date For ‘Doc Martin’ Season 6 (& Doc Martin bloopers)

TV WISE

By Patrick Munn

The sixth season of ITV’s drama series Doc Martin will premiere on Monday September 2nd at 9pm, it has been announced.

Created by Dominic Minghella, Doc Martin follows the daily life of a cantankerous GP in the village of Port Wenn, Cornwall. The drama series is produced by Buffalo Pictures and stars Martin Clunes, Caroline Catz, Eileen Atkins, Ian McNeice, John Marquez and Jessica Ransom. In the opening episode of the show’s sixth season Portwenn is buzzing with arrangements for the wedding of the Doc and Louisa. Will they finally tie the knot, or will the villagers have to put the confetti back in the box again?

READ MORE HERE:  http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/08/itv-sets-premiere-date-for-doc-martin-season-6/

Doc Martin love scenes - rare footage

Hard as it is to believe, Doc Martin does have a heart and he does love his Louisa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1XqdbIPN4E&feature=relmfu

Martin Clunes: Doc Martin

DramaCCPG46 mins

7:30pm Saturday, November 19 2011

About The Program

PC Joe Penhale (John Marquez) is desperate to keep Maggie, his ex-wife, and show her he's changed; that he's the macho husband she wants. But once she has the all clear from the doctor, Maggie plans to return to Bude.

Tension is mounting between Louisa (Caroline Catz) and Martin (Martin Clunes). They can't seem to agree on anything, from the schooling for their son, to what to cook for supper. The final straw for Louisa comes when she discovers Martin has set a date for their baby's christening without even consulting her. Louisa decides she has had enough. She packs a bag, and takes the baby back home to her mum.