Still a medical marvel
OUR LOVE FOR DOC MARTIN SHOWS NO SIGN OF WANING, AS SERIES EIGHT GETS UNDER WAY
WE ARE a nation in love with Dr Martin Ellingham. He’s a cantankerous and downright rude village GP, but I guess there’s no accounting for taste.
This series is eternally popular, thanks to its comforting Corrie-style mix of high drama and comedy, and a winning cast.
Martin Clunes of course plays the brusque medic, who as this eighth series opens, is running as fast as he can. A fisherman has stuck his hand in the winch of his brother’s boat, and it all gets a bit squeamish as imbecile police officer Joe (John Marquez) asks helpfully: “Shall I reverse the machinery?”
Village idiot Joe is getting married to the doc’s nanny Janice (Robyn Addison), which becomes the focus for this episode.
A pre-wedding party gets off to a bad start when some of the guests start collapsing with a mystery illness.
Meanwhile, we’ve fortunately moved on from the marriage counselling of the last series, and Martin and Louisa (Caroline Catz) seem to be living happily for once with baby James.
Although Louisa descends into paranoia when she misses James saying his first word – possibly “dog” or “duck”, they’re not sure.
Elsewhere, there’s a new ‘comedy curate’ in town and, shock horror, it’s a woman. She is a nervous one at that, one who gets a nosebleed every time something remotely stressful happens.
Aside from regular cast members Dame Eileen Atkins, Ian McNeice and Joe Absolom, watch out for guest stars this series including Art Malik, Caroline Quentin and a returning Sigourney Weaver, a Doc Martin superfan just like us.