Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
DOCTOR IN DISTRESS
Doc Martin’s in danger of being struck off as the ninth series begins on ITV – and that’s not his only problem...
He maybe a first-class GP with an encyclopaedic medical knowledge, but Martin Ellingham could certainly not be called caring.
Brusque to the point of rudeness, he’s been giving patients at his Cornish surgery a hard time for the past 15 years. Now, at the start of a new series of ITV’s hit comedy drama Doc Martin, his lack of empathy comes back to haunt him.
Complaints about his behaviour have been made to the General Medical Council, which has sent a doctor, Rebecca Hedden, to Portwenn to investigate.
‘ He could be struck off,’ explains Martin Clunes, who plays Doc Martin. ‘Dr Hedden is there to observe him working but he resents her butting in to his consultations and telling him he’s being rude to his patients. He tries to shake her off, run away and hide from her. They argue and row.’
Long- suffering Louisa, the moody medic’s wife, tries to smooth things over by inviting Dr Hedden out to lunch with her and Martin. But not even the arrival of Ruth Ellingham, a highly respected criminal psychiatrist and the doc’s aunt, can warm the frosty atmosphere.
As Martin continues to tangle with Dr Hedden, he’s also trying to save the people of Portwenn. The new series begins with a mercy dash to a farmyard, where widow Lamorna Hammond has been injured in an incident with a cow and needs emergency treatment. Later, chemist Sally Tishell requests help when a date she’s on goes painfully wrong – and even Dr Hedden ends up leaning on him after she suffers the shock of her life in a lighthouse.
There’s relationship turmoil too as the long- running show, which began in 2004, returns to our screens for the first time in two years. The doc and Louisa’s son James Henry is starting school and, after some remarks from his new headteacher about Louisa’s ticking bodyclock, the couple give serious thought to having another child.
Meanwhile, Al Large, who’s
running the Crab & Lobster pub with his father Bert, finds himself in an awkward spot after his girlf riend Morwenna mistakenly thinks he’s proposed.
‘Al also has business worries, with the future of the Crab & Lobster up in the air and a father whose business plans don’t always work out for the best,’ explains Joe Absolom, who plays Al. Bert’s latest plan – to buy a share in a fishing boat, guaranteeing fresh produce for the pub at a discount price – looks about as rock solid as a badly rusted trawler.
‘Al is not the world’s most successful businessman himself,’ says Joe. ‘But he reckons there are better ways to invest their money.’
Doc Martin, Wednesday, 9pm, ITV.