Martin Clunes is an endearing teddy bear of a man with a warm voice and a gentle soul. At least that is how I imagine he would be. His first television appearance was a Dr. Who episode back in 1983 and he’s been going strong ever since. He’s been in a variety of shows over the years with the most well known being Men Behaving Badly (which I’ve never seen) and the one below which shows a very different side of Martin than everything else he has done. Watch a few…you won’t be disappointed.
~Doc Martin Portwenn is the charming fictional town on the Cornish coast where Doc Martin is set. Personally, I would love to call this home. It’s a small, picturesque fishing village with craggy cliffs, sandy coves and stone cottages full of charm and character — just stunning. But it’s the people who live here who breathe heart and soul into the place — mad hatters the lot of them. Penhale the bumbly police office, Morwenna the inept secretary, Bert and Al Large, the father-son duo who have one hair brained scheme after another. Fortunately there are one or two characters who tilt towards the more normal and keep everyone else grounded, one being Louisa Glasson, the head-teacher at the local elementary school. Warm and personable, she has an ongoing relationship with the doctor in one form or another. And then there’s Doc Martin himself, the spectacularly socially-inept doctor who leaves his high powered job as a surgeon in London when he develops a fear of blood. As a child he spent his summers in Portwenn with his Aunt Joan so decides to take a job here when his newfound phobia (shockingly) gets in the way of his ability to do his job. They were probably happy to see him go, too. This Doc is cantankerous, tactless and rude. And he may be a man of relatively few words, but the ones he does use are dry, wry and loaded with deadpan—albeit frequently unintentional—humour. This show is heartwarming, occasionally heartbreaking, but always, always wildly entertaining and hilarious. But let’s take a minute to consider the shows crowning achievement. Somehow, inexplicably, it never rains. Given that this is the South of England and not the South of France, this is a remarkable accomplishment. So…if you should be planning a holiday in Britain any time soon you might want to visit the town of Port Isaac where Doc Martin is filmed. It is the only place on the island where it is always warm, sunny and dry.
~William And Mary Clunes bears little resemblance to the standoffish and rude character that he portrays in Doc Martin and in this show his warm and personable nature really shines through. William, an undertaker, meets Mary, a midwife. Yes, one brings people into the world while the other one ushers them out. The full circle of life. The show follows the two as they combine their families: William, a widower, has two girls and Mary, divorced, has two boys. The kids are all smart and charming so there is no major drama in getting everyone together, just the daily minutiae of life that trips everyone up. Throw in an ex-husband who reappears after many years, and Mary’s mother who has a zany humour all her own, and there is plenty of entertainment to go around. But it is the juxtaposition of life and death and everything that falls in-between that makes William & Mary so glorious. It is warmhearted, poignant and very, very funny.
~Arthur And George Not content to merely write about a detective, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle apparently did some real life sleuthing of his own. Doyle was a big advocate for justice and in 1906 helped exonerate George Edalji of a crime he spent three years in jail for, but did not commit. He was accused of writing threatening letters and mutilating animals. As a young solicitor at the time, it was because of Doyle’s help that he was once again able to practice law. Not only that, the outcome helped establish a new appeals court in England. This three part series is a fictionalised account of those events. Martin plays Doyle, replete with soft Scottish brogue, who at the beginning of the show has just lost his wife to TB. He suffers not only from grief but also a guilty conscience as we find out that for a number of years he has had feelings for another woman. While nothing ever happened, they were just friends, he worries that maybe his wife knew about the relationship. The affinity between Doyle and Jean Leckie plays out nicely in the show, adding a personal touch. The two do go on to marry in real life and have three children. When Edalji reaches out to Doyle on his release from prison, Doyle finds himself intrigued and uses the case as a distraction from his own life. There are many Sherlock references and little jokes along the way and even a couple of moody moor shots which add a nice Sherlockian touch.
There are a variety of other shows on Acorn TV that have Martin in them and are all notable for one reason or another.
In A is for Acid he stars as John George Haigh, a serial murderer of the 1940’s who killed his victims and dissolved them in acid. Lovely stuff.
There’s Hunting Venus in which he plays a former pop star turned con artist who is kidnapped by two fans who blackmail him into one final performance. If you’re a fan of eighties music this is hilarious. Cheesier than cheese itself, but entertaining enough to make it watchable. Cameos by Simon Le Bon and Gary Numan are a nice touch.
He’s also done a number of documentaries about animals (he’s clearly an animal lover) as well as several on the islands of Britain, the Pacific and America (clearly he’s a huge fan of islands as well).which doesn’t sound terribly interesting. Regardless of whether you have any desire to learn about these subject matters or not, Martin’s genuine enthusiasm and warm personality combined with a great sense of humour makes everything really interesting.
