Clunes gets on his high horse in boozy row with Ritchie

AS THE maker of hit gangster films such as Snatch and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie knows a thing or two about rancorous disputes.

But the director’s been left bemused by claims made about his brewery by an organisation led by Doc Martin star Martin Clunes (pictured).

The British Horse Society, of which Clunes is president, has ridden into the dispute with Ritchie by publicly objecting to his plans to redevelop a derelict building on his farm in Wiltshire.

He wants to ‘create a new brewery store and bottle store’, but Clunes’s society fears that this will stop its members using a popular riding track nearby.

Speaking for the first time about the row, Ritchie tells me: ‘I don’t quite know what’s going on here.

‘Yes, we’re building an extension to the brewery and no, we’re not moving any bridleways.’ The Gritchie Brewery Company has produced real ale since 2017 on the 1,000-acre estate at Ashcombe House, which he secured as part of his acrimonious divorce settlement from Madonna in 2008. He is now happily married to former model Jacqui Ainsley and has five children. Ritchie says: ‘I live in fear of upsetting The British Horse Society, and nothing makes me happier than seeing a pony trot by while I am enjoying a fresh pint of Gritchie’s IPA.’ The film-maker, who is in lockdown with his family at Ashcombe, would be happy to settle the dispute over a drink with Clunes, who made his name in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly. ‘I’d be delighted to donate a couple of cases to Mr Clunes’s beloved organisation, in order to smooth over any misunderstanding,’ he tells me. Wiltshire Council is expected to give its decision in the summer.