Interview with Martin Clunes on Dr Martin's Christmas Special

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Martin Clunes plays Dr Martin Ellingham

The final series has gone out on a high in the ratings with viewers asking for more.

It is lovely so many people tuned in and enjoyed this last series.

The audience figures are very gratifying. If you were looking for another commission you’d punch the air, but even though we are not looking for another commission, we can still punch the air because it is nice to go out on a high.

When I went to have my flu jab at my local medical centre the day after the final episode went out one of the doctors said to me ‘that was a fantastic episode last night’. That was really nice from a doctor, and the nurse who’d given my me jab said ‘shut up I haven’t watched it yet’. That was gratifying.We hope all those loyal viewers will enjoy the Christmas special.

What was it like on set when you filmed the final scenes of the series?

It was absolutely lovely. It was a hot summer’s day and we were filming a scene from episode seven with Jessica Ransom, Joe Absolom, Vincent Franklin and Beth Goddard. The sea looked like it was the Mediterranean, and just out of vision on the left was beach full of people doing what people do in Cornwall, families loving the beach and the ocean and dogs swimming around. It felt like it was the right way to say goodbye to Cornwall.

It was emotional but I didn’t see anyone crying. It was more elation to have got to the end of nearly six months of filming.

The scene where you threw the For Sale notice for the Doc’s house over the cliff echoed a scene from the very first episode. Were there moments from the final series which tied up loose ends from previous series?

It was an echo to a scene at the end of the first episode in series one. In our mind the big revelation was when the Doc, who’s always hated dogs, let the dog, Chicken (played by Taffy) into the house in the final scene of the final series, having always shoved him out the door from the word go.

What is your favourite memory of the whole ten series?

It was all jam. May be just that memory of being on the beach when it was lovely and sunny and Cornish. I couldn’t single out one memory.

Did you take a souvenir from the production and/or Port Isaac to remind you of your time on Doc Martin?

I really wanted the spaniel model which stood outside the pharmacy for people to put money in for charity. It was pointed out that it belonged to a hire company and that they don’t usually part with them. But somehow my wife got it and gave it to me. It is now very proudly in the entrance hall to our house.

What can we look forward to in the Christmas episode?

Snow, Christmas lights, the lovely Claire Bloom came back to play the character of the Doc’s mother, and Ron Cook as Santa.

You can imagine the doctor isn’t too keen on Christmas for his own tortured reasons. It’s never stopped making me laugh, I don’t know why because if it was a real person who had had such an awful upbringing you’d feel nothing but pity for them, but because it is him it just makes me laugh.

How did his tortured childhood affect the Doc’s approach to the festive season?

As a child his parents abandoned him on Christmas Day, leaving him with a pencil set and an orange in his Christmas stocking.

It has just slightly scarred him, and also with his cynical view of everything, he thinks it is all a lot of nonsense and was an invention to hide a Pagan festival.

His son James is trying to get into the spirit of Christmas and Louisa is trying to engage with James’ engagement so there’s a sort of impasse between Louisa, James and the Doc.

Then there’s Leonard played by Ron Cook, who has his own personal problems with Christmas - his wife, who loved Christmas, died five years ago just two days before Christmas - although he is solving it by entering into the celebration and playing Santa.

We saw a softer, more compassionate Doc in the final scenes of the last series, does he return to being his grumpy self in the Christmas episode?

The soft side was due to a massive loss of blood! That’s his excuse. He is a bit grumpy because of all the festive nonsense, and he is not sure his son should be infected by such nonsense, and wants him to place it where he places Christmas in his mind.

He manages to upset the children of Portwenn by closing down Santa’s Grotto?

He thinks Santa may have something contagious because he is itching and scratching, and the children can’t be put at risk, even though it is upsetting for them. His son James is so upset at not meeting Santa he tries to run away to the North Pole in search of him.

James doesn’t want to speak to his father, nobody wants to speak to him - but he’s been there before.

When was the Christmas episode filmed?

It was filmed in February. It was the first thing we shot, before shooting the series. We needed North Cornwall’s trees not to have any leaves, and have it looking wintry, and it was. I discovered electric clothes to keep me warm. They are fantastic. It’s a gilet, and you use a power bank, like you’d charge your phone with, and it has three different settings to keep you warm. I turned it up to the max.

There was a major storm which affected the filming - the Christmas tree on the Platt had to be taken down before it was blown down?

It was a major storm, Storm Eunice, and one day we had to get all the actors out of the trailers and into the production office for safety, because the wind was rocking the trailers around. The props team had to take down the huge Christmas tree they’d placed on the Platt for fear of it being blown over. When we were filming in the studio in a barn on the farm there was a worry, but we carried on.

Just a month after finishing filming Doc Martin you flew to Papua New Guinea to begin filming a new documentary series for ITV about the Islands of the Pacific?

It was absolutely fantastic, and it felt very different from the first series of the Islands of the Pacific. Because of the logistics of Papua New Guinea we were far more embedded. We lived in this village on the Trobriand Islands where they built us huts and we lived with them for the whole time we were there - seven to eight days. We got to see their lives, and visited other villages nearby and got to really see the tribal nature of how they live.

We then went to the the Philippines, and finally to Guam and Halau.

Having spent so much time away this year you must be looking forward to spending time at home with your family at Christmas?

We had six days between the first two blocks of filming to make space for the World Clydesdale Show, of which I am president.(Martin is a keen heavy horse enthusiast, himself owning two Clydesdale horses, Ronnie and Bruce) I got to spend one night at home then went up to Aberdeen for the show.

Every morning I woke up and I wondered where I was and which bed I was in. This morning I woke up at quarter to six thinking ‘where am I and where have I got to go’. It was the first morning I’ve thought, I live here. It’s a real adjustment when you wake up and look around the room, looking for familiar things, and thinking which hut am I in?

What are your plans for Christmas?

We have all the family coming to us, which is a joy, and we all share the cooking.

What are your favourite memories of Christmas?

I remember the weight of the stocking on the end of the bed. Mum would wrap each present in paper, things she had gathered through the year, which goes on here now at Christmas.

What was your favourite Christmas present?

I was very excited when I got a Corgi James Bond car which had a little figure you could flip out the roof. But it broke.

What would you most like for Christmas this year?

I’d like a trip somewhere - we buy each other trips rather than stuff -last year we went to Madeira.

What is next?

I start working on a new drama for ITV next year about county lines crime.


November 23, 2022 4:00am ET by ITV Press Centre  

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