Martin Clunes interview: The actor stars as the Sherlock Holmes creator in Arthur & George

INDEPENDENT
GERARD GILBERT  Author Biography  
Wednesday 25 February 2015



"When I tell people I'm playing Arthur Conan Doyle on TV, some of them ask, 'Oh, is Benedict Cumberbatch in it?'," says Martin Clunes, illustrating a common blurring of distinction between the creator of Sherlock Holmes and his creation. Sitting in a carriage on a steam train on the Bluebell Railway line in Sussex (the same locomotives used in Downton Abbey, as it happens), with Clunes suited, booted and cloaked in full Victorian-Holmesian outwear, it's easy to understand the confusion. "London taxi drivers tell me that American tourists have sort of heard of Conan Doyle," he says, as we chug through the countryside, "but they think he was a prime minister. Mind you, they also think Sherlock was prime minister."

So to be clear: Clunes is filming a scene in ITV's new three-hour adaptation of Julian Barnes's 2005 novel Arthur & George, in which Barnes fictionalised real events from 1903 when Conan Doyle – rich and famous from the proceeds of his Sherlock Holmes stories, but widowed and bored – took it on himself to investigate what he saw as a miscarriage of justice. Staffordshire solicitor George Edalji, the Anglo-Indian son of a vicar – and the victim apparently of long-standing racial prejudice – had been convicted of mutilating livestock. "There's no way he could have cut those animals," says Clunes. "He was a bookish, disabled, poor-eye-sighted solicitor."

Clunes's wife, and the co-owner of a production company that also makes the actor's enduring ITV hit Doc Martin, Philippa Braithwaite, optioned Barnes's novel – with no real intention, she tells me, of casting her husband as Conan Doyle. "It wasn't written for Martin; it was just because I loved the book," she says. "I didn't know anything about Conan Doyle. I just picked up this book and it was a real case that just seemed so bizarre. And this was before any of the big Sherlock Holmes revivals had started really, so it was a coincidence that Sherlock had become so huge while we were working on this."

"I knew she was beavering away on this and slugging it out with Julian Barnes's agent and trying to satisfy them," says Clunes. "When I read the book I couldn't instantly see what Philippa had seen because it doesn't scream out 'televise me' when you read it, but she's obviously much smarter than I am." Peter Fincham, director of television at ITV, had, in his previous job as controller of BBC1, tried to persuade the channel to film Barnes's novel, but had been told it was "BBC2". "In the way that people say those things," says Clunes.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/martin-clunes-interview-the-actor-stars-as-the-sherlock-holmes-creator-in-arthur--george-10070879.html

Martin Clunes tells Julia Molony about juggling TV fame with rural life on his Dorset farm

INDEPENDENT
Julia Molony
PUBLISHED
17/11/2014 | 02:30

Benedict Cumberbatch might have his Cumberbitches, but Martin Clunes could give him a run for his money with his Clunatics.

They are the devoted fans of Doc Martin, the television show in which he stars. They run on-line discussion groups, are unwavering in their devotion, and even turn up at the actor's home wearing Doc Martin masks. It sounds a bit scary, but Clunes is entirely sanguine. "We have a fair on our farm every summer, and they come in their droves. And they give thousands of pounds - we do it for local charities and the Clunatics, even if they don't come, they send money. I've been sent sleigh bells for my horses, all sorts of things. English fans just generally want a signed picture, whereas the Americans want to tell you a bit about themselves, and what it means to them."

Clunes is wearing a smart suit and his British Horse Society pin. He is the president of the society and today, in the middle of a film publicity campaign, dashed out to give a speech to the members before coming back to resume talking to journalists in Claridges.

It's an indication of the two worlds he inhabits - down on his farm in Dorset surrounded by horses, cows, chickens and dogs, with interludes spent making films and telly.

He and his wife, the renowned producer Philippa Braithwaite, run Buffalo Pictures production company together. They make Doc Martin, are currently filming a television adaptation of the Julian Barnes book Arthur and George, about Arthur Conan Doyle, and are behind an array of nature-focused documentaries which Clunes fronts.

But it's Doc Martin which has arguably been their most high-profile collaboration, both in the UK and abroad. "People do absolutely love it, which is very gratifying. You get people sending in scripts, that they've gone to the trouble of registered delivery post."

He's a busy man at the moment having accidentally conquered America with Doc Martin and today is promoting his latest film project. Nativity 3, Dude Where's My Donkey?! is the third instalment in the seasonal children's comedy set at the fictional St Bernadette's school. It's full of Christmassy high-jinks and is all improvised. The kids who are cast are not given scripts or characters, but are asked just to be themselves. "They're the lesson… because they live in the moment and that's what you have to do to improvise," Clunes says. "You have to get right there with them." Working with large groups of primary school kids is, he admits, "completely chaotic. But that's why they shoot so much and take a year to edit it. What you don't get is hokey kid actors doing dialogue. They're just being themselves."

It's good, old-fashioned silly fun for the under 10s. Clunes's character Mr Shepperton, is a school-teacher whose wife has died, leaving him to raise his daughter Lauren alone.Things get more complicated when he is kicked in the head by a donkey, loses his memory, and can't even recognise Lauren.

"It's not the first time in my working life that I've told stories that have come close to the notion of abandonment, and they've always got me," Clunes says. His father Alec Clunes, who was a well-known actor, died when he was eight, and it was only afterwards that Martin discovered his parents had split up and Alec had left the family for a while. "There are all sorts of types of abandonment, but I know it's something I tap into and I guess it's because of that sense of losing people at a young age. Because kids just have needs, don't they? And what rocks them is 'who is going to look after me,' and I think you either do or don't carry that through with you as an adult," he says.



READ MORE HERE: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/still-cluning-around-30744943.html

Martin Clunes and Debra Stephenson star guests at Julia's House ball

BLACKMORE VALE MAGAZINE
By mbarber  |  Posted: September 30, 2014


Julia’s House development director Sarah Clark with Martin and Philippa Clunes

Julia’s House patrons actor Martin Clunes and impressionist Debra Stephenson pitched in at the Julia’s House annual Butterfly Ball, helping to make the event a stunning success.

The event which took place at Canford School was attended by 160 guests and raised £40,000.

Martin Clunes conducted the charity auction which including two lots he had donated - a walk-on part in the next series of Doc Martin and one of the suits his character wore in the hit TV show. They turned out to be the star lots, attracting combined bids to the tune of £2,250.

Debra Stephenson rounded off the evening by singing the opera classic Oh Mio Babbino Caro.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.blackmorevale.co.uk/Martin-Clunes-Debra-Stephenson-star-guests-Julia/story-23020231-detail/story.html

Martin Clunes & A Lion Called Mugie

WESTERN MORNING NEWS
By Western Morning News  |  Posted: March 24, 2014
By Keeley Bolger



Two decades ago, Martin Clunes was known for playing lager-guzzling lad Gary in Men Behaving Badly, but now, you’re more likely to find him down on his farm or in a far-flung nature reserve filming lions. It’s beyond his wildest dreams, he tells Keeley Bolger

As an owner of three dogs, Martin Clunes is used to taking a brisk stroll around his Dorset farm with the pooches in tow. But on a recent trip to Kenya, he found himself quite literally walking on the wild side.

The Doc Martin actor was in the Kora National Reserve in a remote part of Kenya, filming his new wildlife series Martin Clunes & A Lion Called Mugie, when he found himself striding alongside the young lion – as well as some well-trained lion experts.

“I was quite scared,” admits Clunes, and that’s despite having met Mugie on a few occasions over the three years it took to film the documentary about the orphaned cub.

“He didn’t remember me from when he was little,” says the actor, who’s married to TV producer Philippa Braithwaite and has one daughter, Emily.

“He ran at me a bit, and his play-fighting was challenging.”

There was one moment that is clearly etched on his mind.

“I swear he was eyeing me up at one point,” says the 52-year-old.

“You know that look a cat gives before it pounces? I’ve got two cats and I think I know that look, and when we were out I went, ‘Oh, he’s looking at me!”’

Luckily, the animal lover kept his cool. “I’m sure if I’d been edgy, the claws would have come out. Those paws were big,” he notes, chuckling.



Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Martin-Clunes-takes-walk-wild/story-20845803-detail/story.html#ixzz2wuAJIKqW

Martin Clunes is raking in a fortune from overseas Doc Martin operations (and here are a few other Doc Martins)

MIRROR

By Susie Boniface

8 September, 2013

A GENTLE TV tale of a grumpy ­village doctor is making ­millions for Doc Martin star Martin Clunes, the Sunday People can reveal.

The main character’s decent but slightly dopey image belies the fact that Clunes himself is clearly a sharp businessman.

Fans here are delighted the Doc’s ­adventures in the fictional Cornish village of Portwenn are back with a sixth series. Yet few realise the show is not a quiet telly ­backwater – but a global phenomenon.

It has been sold to more than 70 ­countries. Seven of the biggest are France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Greece, Poland and Russia, where they are all busy ­filming local versions with their own Doc, Doktor or Docteur.

Add to that the inevitable DVD and other box sets, pens, mugs and fridge ­magnets sold around Port Isaac, where the series is shot, and the massive scale of the worldwide Doc Martin industry becomes clear.

All this has made multi-millionaires of Clunes and his TV producer wife Philippa Braithwaite – owners of the production company that makes the programme.

But although the foreigners follow the Clunes version closely, there are a range of “cultural” differences.

For instance the Greek series features rather more pretty girls in bikinis than Doc Martin would encounter in Portwenn.

The Spanish version has been given a theme tune in a soft-rock style.

And of course none of the doctors has quite the same spectacular ears as Clunes.

He said: “I’ve seen little bits of them. The Spanish one is quite smart. The French show has sort of overtaken us – but they’re not allowed to have another child or do anything radical that we haven’t done. They have to have the same plots.

“The Germans were the first to do it and they bought our music as well. They sort of did it shot for shot.

“In this country Doc Martin is seen as a very middle-of-the-road mainstream programme, although there are other things in there if you’re looking.

“But people abroad see this very strange little morsel from another country. It’s exotic.”

FRANCE

TITLE: Doc Martin.

THE DOC: Dr Martin Le Foll winds up in the ­fictional Breton town of Port Garrec, twinned with Portwenn. He looks a bit like Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

HIS GIRLFRIEND: Blonde Julie Derville, who despite having the looks of an international supermodel is in fact a ­village school teacher.

THE EXTRAS: Aunt Jeanne, policeman Mario who jumps out wearing a balaclava, and, yes, an obsessed pharmacist in a neck brace who Doc has no idea is secretly in love with him.

TYPICAL SCENE: Docteur Martin enters ­pharmacy and wonders if any of his patients are Seine.

Female pharmacist: Ooh la la, Docteur! You are so ‘andsome, I zink.

GERMANY

TITLE: Doktor Martin.

THE DOC: Dr Martin Helling, a ­vascular surgeon from Berlin who… fear of blood... quaint fishing village… you get the drift. It even has the same theme tune as the UK original. He is a bit of a sauerkraut.

HIS GIRLFRIEND: Blonde teacher Thea. Strangely, she doesn’t seem to mind when female patients unbutton their blouses and the Doktor asks them: “What are those?”

THE EXTRAS: Fat plumber Gert, who wears a dirty woollen hat. A dim policeman, a lazy receptionist, and the doc’s Aunt Alma.

At one point the doc tries to trick a dog into jumping over a cliff, then kicks it in a rage. Wouldn’t happen in Portwenn.

GREECE

TITLE: Kliniki Periptosi (Clinical Cases).

THE DOC: Markos Staikos is a surgeon from New York who…yep, you got it, moves to a quaint Greek fishing village.

HIS GIRLFRIEND: Pretty brunette Andrianna, who he leers at as she wades out of the sea in a bikini, Ursula Andress-style. He’s 30 years older if a day.




THERE'S LOTS MORE - READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/martin-clunes-raking-fortune-overseas-2258934
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Martin Clunes used show tips to stop operation on his wife

INDEPENDENT WOMAN

14 AUGUST 2013

Doc Martin star Martin Clunes has used his medical knowledge from his years playing the grumpy West Country GP to step in and stop surgeons operating on his wife.

Martin, who is married to the show's producer Philippa Braithwaite, got involved when doctors said they wanted to carry out what he described as a "nonsensical" operation.

He said: "She had an infection in her gall bladder and the surgeon was minded to take out her appendix. There was no infection in her appendix and instinct told me that it would be the wrong thing to do. So I took her home instead and she was treated there.

"As Philippa's husband, it was my prerogative to do this. But when I was chatting to hospital staff they handed me her medical notes to look at in a way they might not have with an ordinary member of the public. I do wonder whether there wasn't some confusion between me and Doc Martin."

(FROM READERS DIGEST SEPTEMBER ISSUE)

read more here: http://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/clunes-used-show-tips-to-stop-op-29499051.html

Martin Clunes & wife Philippa Braithwaite discuss horse adoptions

Mrs. T's Love Shrine