50 Fun Facts About Doc Martin

Which phobia forces London surgeon Martin Ellingham to stop operating and become a village GP in Doc Martin?

Fear of blood ends his surgical career, and the nausea it brings still has him vomiting in front of patients. The villagers find out soon enough.

Which real Cornish fishing village plays the fictional Portwenn on screen in the ITV series Doc Martin?

Port Isaac doubled as Portwenn for all ten series, and is also home to the sea-shanty singers Fisherman's Friends.

Before starring in Doc Martin, Martin Clunes found fame playing Gary Strang in which BBC sitcom?

Men Behaving Badly won Clunes a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in 1996, years before he first scowled his way around Portwenn.

Whatever the weather, what does Martin Ellingham always wear in Doc Martin, even when delivering babies?

A suit and tie is his uniform on every occasion, and the jacket never comes off. ITV wanted a townie who was visibly uncomfortable in the countryside.

In Doc Martin, troubled park ranger Stewart believes he shares his home with Anthony, a six-foot what?

Red squirrel Anthony is the imaginary housemate of the ranger, a military veteran with PTSD played by Ben Miller.

Which medical accessory is lovestruck Portwenn pharmacist Mrs Tishell almost never seen without in Doc Martin?

A neck brace is her trademark, worn for years despite Martin urging her to take it off. Only in the very last episode does he find she no longer needs it.

Which Hollywood star, a friend of Selina Cadell for decades, played American tourist Beth Traywick in Doc Martin?

Sigourney Weaver and Selina Cadell, who plays Mrs Tishell, have been friends for some 40 years. Weaver came back to Portwenn for a second visit two years after her first.

Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwaite has which real-life connection to the leading man, Martin Clunes?

His wife since 1997, Braithwaite produced the series, and it was Clunes's own company that sold the idea to ITV.

Which writer created Doc Martin for ITV, reworking a laid-back doctor Martin Clunes had played in earlier films?

Dominic Minghella signed his creation: the doctor's new surname, Ellingham, is an anagram of Minghella.

Which dog, first brought round by Aunt Joan, keeps following an irritated Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin?

Buddy belonged to Aunt Joan's neighbour, and turns hero in the series seven finale by tracking Martin to the house where he is being held at gunpoint.

Which actress, a TV detective in DCI Banks and Murder in Suburbia, plays Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin?

Caroline Catz stayed with Louisa from 2004 to 2022, and has played police officers in four long-running roles, the first of them in The Bill.

Which trade does Bert Large give up in series three of Doc Martin in order to open a restaurant?

Plumbing gave way to catering, but Bert forgot the alcohol licence and his opening was followed by several cases of food poisoning.

Which job does Louisa Glasson hold in Portwenn when Martin Ellingham arrives as the new GP in Doc Martin?

Schoolteacher Louisa works at Portwenn Primary and rises to headmistress, while her on-off romance with Martin runs through the whole series.

Aunt Ruth, who arrives in Doc Martin for her sister Joan's funeral, is a retired doctor in which field?

Psychiatry was her career, forensic cases included, so Ruth is the one who tells her nephew that his troubles go back to his cold, distant parents.

Which Dame, co-creator of Upstairs, Downstairs, joined Doc Martin in series five as Martin's Aunt Ruth?

Eileen Atkins devised Upstairs, Downstairs with fellow actress Jean Marsh, and joined the Portwenn cast in September 2011.

Which star of Waiting for God played Martin Ellingham's farm-owning Aunt Joan in the first four series of Doc Martin?

Stephanie Cole made a hallmark of playing women much older than herself, and her Joan was the one relative Martin was warm towards.

Which actor, also Winston Churchill in Doctor Who, plays hapless Portwenn entrepreneur Bert Large in Doc Martin?

Ian McNeice appeared in all ten series as Bert, and played Churchill in four Doctor Who episodes in 2010 and 2011.

While playing receptionist Pauline Lamb in Doc Martin, Katherine Parkinson was asked to audition for which sitcom?

The IT Crowd was struggling to cast its female lead, so her drama-school friend Chris O'Dowd asked her to try out. She won a BAFTA as Jen Barber.

Joe Absolom, who plays Al Large in Doc Martin, was earlier known as Matthew Rose in which soap?

EastEnders made Absolom a familiar face from 1997 to 2000, before he spent 18 years in Portwenn as Bert's son, forever chasing a new business idea.

Which former sitcom co-star of Martin Clunes guest-starred in Doc Martin as Portwenn vet Angela Sim?

Caroline Quentin had played Dorothy opposite Clunes from 1992 to 1998, and returned as the vet in two later series after her 2015 debut.

What is the name of the only pub in Portwenn, at one point run by landlord Ken Hollister, in Doc Martin?

The Crab and Lobster shuts in series eight when its landlord has a health scare, until Al Large offers to take over the running of it.

After struggling to choose in series five of Doc Martin, what name do Martin and Louisa give their baby son?

James Henry spends his first episodes nameless while his sleepless parents fail to agree. By series nine his great-aunt has spotted that he is highly gifted.

Fuelled by a cocktail of drugs, what does besotted Mrs Tishell do in the series five finale of Doc Martin?

She abducts Louisa's baby, vanishing to a holiday home convinced the boy is her own son with the doctor. He has to feign love for her to coax her out.

In the series six finale of Doc Martin, Louisa sets off with the baby for her mother's home in which country?

Spain is where her mother Eleanor had moved when Louisa was only 11, and the separation pushes Martin into keeping his promise to see a therapist.

In series three of Doc Martin, which disease does Al Large bring home from a long trip to Africa?

Sleeping sickness came from tsetse fly bites. Al comes home robbed of everything he owned, and Pauline finds him collapsed on the floor of his flat.

In the first episode of Doc Martin, which eye condition does Martin Ellingham spot in Louisa at his job interview?

Glaucoma was his spontaneous diagnosis, delivered just after he had managed to offend her. It set the tone for their whole romance.

Before his phobia struck in Doc Martin, Martin Ellingham was an eminent London surgeon in which specialty?

Vascular surgery at Imperial College London was his field, and the college tempts him with a job back in the capital in more than one series.

In a childhood flashback in one Doc Martin episode, Martin Clunes also plays which relative of Martin Ellingham?

His father, Christopher, is as cold as his mother, and Clunes has said that growing up loathed by both parents explains the doctor's trouble with relationships.

Which hobby occupies Martin Ellingham at the start of the final series of Doc Martin, while he is out of medicine?

Repairing clocks fills his year away from the surgery, and has him getting under everyone's feet at home until he admits he wants his job back.

Which drink does a homeless Bert Large start making in his van in series seven of Doc Martin?

Whisky becomes the Large family's next big scheme, later licensed for sale at the bed and breakfast Al runs with Ruth, though her audit finds it losing money.

What ailment afflicts PC Joe Penhale on his wedding day in the series eight opener of Doc Martin?

Kidney stones are the diagnosis, but he refuses the medication in case it spoils the ceremony. His bride Janice jilts him at the altar anyway.

In series eight of Doc Martin, pub landlord Ken Hollister catches leptospirosis from which animals in his cellar?

Rats infesting the basement gave him the bacterial infection, which Martin diagnoses after the landlord collapses.

In series eight of Doc Martin, Morwenna's missionary parents pay a surprise visit from which African country?

Kenya is where the Newcrosses do their mission work, and they are taken aback to find their daughter in a relationship with Al Large.

Morwenna captains Portwenn against rival village Port Carran in which sport in series eight of Doc Martin?

Gig rowing is the annual contest, and the rival captain's faint in Martin's surgery leads to the formal complaint that puts his career on the line.

In series eight of Doc Martin, what gets stuck up the nose of Martin and Louisa's teething son?

An amber bead was the culprit: his sleep-starved parents had been advised to let him chew on the beads while he was teething.

What is the unlikely name of the Ellingham family's adopted dog in the final series of Doc Martin?

Chicken goes missing on what should be the family's last day in Portwenn, and the search for him ends in a cattle stampede.

In the final series of Doc Martin, Martin and Louisa have a new baby daughter with which name?

Mary Elizabeth arrives between series, a year after Louisa broke the news of her pregnancy to Martin at Al and Morwenna's wedding.

In the later series of Doc Martin, Louisa gives up her Portwenn job to retrain in which career?

Child counselling appeals to her after she helps a troubled pupil in series eight, and by the final series she is seeing clients in Martin's surgery.

Which star of The Good Wife plays the doctor in Best Medicine, the American remake of Doc Martin?

Josh Charles plays Dr Martin Best, who swaps a Boston hospital for a fishing village in Maine. The Fox series began in January 2026.

Dokter Tinus, a remake of Doc Martin starring Thom Hoffman, was made for television in which country?

The Netherlands got Dokter Tinus on SBS6 from 2012, filmed in the riverside town of Woudrichem rather than beside the sea.

Doc Martin grew out of which 2000 film comedy, in which Brenda Blethyn plays a widow who grows cannabis?

Saving Grace cast Clunes as the friendly, laid-back Dr Martin Bamford, and was filmed in the same Cornish village that later became Portwenn.

Which future US late-night host co-wrote and starred in the 2000 film that spawned Martin Clunes's Doc Martin?

Craig Ferguson wrote the screenplay with Mark Crowdy, later executive producer of the ITV series, five years before he took over The Late Late Show on CBS.

Which broadcaster made two Doc Martin TV films before its film arm folded and Martin Clunes took the idea to ITV?

BSkyB had signed up for two films a year over three years, but only two were made, and in them the village keeps its real name.

In the two original Doc Martin TV films, Martin Clunes's easygoing Dr Bamford had which medical specialty?

Obstetrics was his field, and he fled London for Cornwall after discovering his spouse's affairs, with none of Ellingham's phobias or bad temper.

Most interior scenes for Doc Martin were filmed inside which kind of converted local building in Cornwall?

A barn held the interior sets, while the outside of Martin's home and surgery is a real house called Fern Cottage.

The French remake of Doc Martin, starring Thierry Lhermitte, moves the action from Cornwall to which region?

Brittany provides the fictional port of Port-Garrec, where Lhermitte's Dr Martin Le Foll practised on TF1 from 2011 to 2015.

Louisa's long-absent dad Terry Glasson left Portwenn accused of stealing money raised for what in Doc Martin?

The lifeboat fund theft always hung over Terry, who insisted he was innocent while Louisa stayed his staunchest defender.

ITV first showed the 2006 Doc Martin film On the Edge and the 2022 farewell special on which day of the year?

Christmas Day hosted both: On the Edge ran to 92 minutes in 2006, and the farewell in 2022 closed the story after ten series.

How does the series three finale of Doc Martin end for Martin and Louisa on their planned wedding day?

They call it off, leaving the whole village waiting in the church, on a day when Martin has already delivered a baby on a hillside.

In the series nine opener of Doc Martin, Mrs Tishell's accident calls Martin out to which real Cornish lighthouse?

Godrevy is also where the medical council's assessor gets an electric shock, leaving Martin to give CPR to the woman sent to judge him.