Doc Martin
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50 free Doc Martin trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Doc Martin ran on ITV for ten series between 2004 and 2022, and its formula never needed changing: put a brilliant, tactless London surgeon in a pretty Cornish harbour village and let the locals wear him down. Martin Clunes's Dr Martin Ellingham has no bedside manner and no small talk, and Portwenn takes him to its heart anyway. This quiz covers the whole run. There are questions on Martin and Louisa's on-off romance, the Large family's doomed business schemes, Mrs Tishell's devotion, PC Penhale's blunders and the aunts who keep the doctor in line. It also goes behind the camera, to the cast's other roles, the films the series grew out of, the real locations and the remakes made abroad. Series 8 gets a cluster of its own. It is written for anyone who has watched the show on ITV, PBS or a streaming service, whether you saw it once or have rewatched every series. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a few stories from the set even on the ones you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which phobia forces London surgeon Martin Ellingham to stop operating and become a village GP in Doc Martin?
Fear of blood
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.
Q 02Which real Cornish fishing village plays the fictional Portwenn on screen in the ITV series Doc Martin?
Port Isaac
Port Isaac doubled as Portwenn for all ten series, and is also home to the sea-shanty singers Fisherman's Friends.
Q 03Before starring in Doc Martin, Martin Clunes found fame playing Gary Strang in which BBC sitcom?
Men Behaving Badly
Men Behaving Badly won Clunes a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in 1996, years before he first scowled his way around Portwenn.
Q 04Whatever the weather, what does Martin Ellingham always wear in Doc Martin, even when delivering babies?
A suit and tie
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.
Q 05In Doc Martin, troubled park ranger Stewart believes he shares his home with Anthony, a six-foot what?
Red squirrel
Red squirrel Anthony is the imaginary housemate of the ranger, a military veteran with PTSD played by Ben Miller.
Q 06Which medical accessory is lovestruck Portwenn pharmacist Mrs Tishell almost never seen without in Doc Martin?
A neck brace
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.
Q 07Which Hollywood star, a friend of Selina Cadell for decades, played American tourist Beth Traywick in Doc Martin?
Sigourney Weaver
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.
Q 08Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwaite has which real-life connection to the leading man, Martin Clunes?
His wife
His wife since 1997, Braithwaite produced the series, and it was Clunes's own company that sold the idea to ITV.
Q 09Which writer created Doc Martin for ITV, reworking a laid-back doctor Martin Clunes had played in earlier films?
Dominic Minghella
Dominic Minghella signed his creation: the doctor's new surname, Ellingham, is an anagram of Minghella.
Q 10Which dog, first brought round by Aunt Joan, keeps following an irritated Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin?
Buddy
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.
Q 11Which actress, a TV detective in DCI Banks and Murder in Suburbia, plays Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin?
Caroline Catz
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.
Q 12Which trade does Bert Large give up in series three of Doc Martin in order to open a restaurant?
Plumbing
Plumbing gave way to catering, but Bert forgot the alcohol licence and his opening was followed by several cases of food poisoning.
Q 13Which job does Louisa Glasson hold in Portwenn when Martin Ellingham arrives as the new GP in Doc Martin?
Schoolteacher
Q 21What is the name of the only pub in Portwenn, at one point run by landlord Ken Hollister, in Doc Martin?
The Crab and Lobster
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.
Q 22After struggling to choose in series five of Doc Martin, what name do Martin and Louisa give their baby son?
James Henry
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.
Q 23Fuelled by a cocktail of drugs, what does besotted Mrs Tishell do in the series five finale of Doc Martin?
Abducts Louisa's baby
Schoolteacher Louisa works at Portwenn Primary and rises to headmistress, while her on-off romance with Martin runs through the whole series.
Q 14Aunt Ruth, who arrives in Doc Martin for her sister Joan's funeral, is a retired doctor in which field?
Psychiatry
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.
Q 15Which Dame, co-creator of Upstairs, Downstairs, joined Doc Martin in series five as Martin's Aunt Ruth?
Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins devised Upstairs, Downstairs with fellow actress Jean Marsh, and joined the Portwenn cast in September 2011.
Q 16Which star of Waiting for God played Martin Ellingham's farm-owning Aunt Joan in the first four series of Doc Martin?
Stephanie Cole
Stephanie Cole made a hallmark of playing women much older than herself, and her Joan was the one relative Martin was warm towards.
Q 17Which actor, also Winston Churchill in Doctor Who, plays hapless Portwenn entrepreneur Bert Large in Doc Martin?
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice appeared in all ten series as Bert, and played Churchill in four Doctor Who episodes in 2010 and 2011.
Q 18While playing receptionist Pauline Lamb in Doc Martin, Katherine Parkinson was asked to audition for which sitcom?
The IT Crowd
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.
Q 19Joe Absolom, who plays Al Large in Doc Martin, was earlier known as Matthew Rose in which soap?
EastEnders
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.
Q 20Which former sitcom co-star of Martin Clunes guest-starred in Doc Martin as Portwenn vet Angela Sim?
Caroline Quentin
Caroline Quentin had played Dorothy opposite Clunes from 1992 to 1998, and returned as the vet in two later series after her 2015 debut.
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.
Q 24In the series six finale of Doc Martin, Louisa sets off with the baby for her mother's home in which country?
Spain
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.
Q 25In series three of Doc Martin, which disease does Al Large bring home from a long trip to Africa?
Sleeping sickness
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.
Q 26In the first episode of Doc Martin, which eye condition does Martin Ellingham spot in Louisa at his job interview?
Glaucoma
Glaucoma was his spontaneous diagnosis, delivered just after he had managed to offend her. It set the tone for their whole romance.
Q 27Before his phobia struck in Doc Martin, Martin Ellingham was an eminent London surgeon in which specialty?
Vascular
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.
Q 28In a childhood flashback in one Doc Martin episode, Martin Clunes also plays which relative of Martin Ellingham?
His father
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.
Q 29Which hobby occupies Martin Ellingham at the start of the final series of Doc Martin, while he is out of medicine?
Repairing clocks
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.
Q 30Which drink does a homeless Bert Large start making in his van in series seven of Doc Martin?
Whisky
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.