Doc Martin Season 10

Eighteen years and millions of viewers later, audiences will be bidding a fond farewell to the surly, quirky but curiously endearing Dr Martin Ellingham when Martin Clunes returns for the tenth and final season of Doc Martin, exclusively on BritBox from Thursday, 1 December. Expect emotions to run high as we return to the idyllic Cornish coast one last time, with a host of familiar faces and special guest stars.

Clunes, who previously won a BAFTA for playing the laddish Gary in Men Behaving Badly, reinvented himself for a new generation of fans as a surly village doctor, scooping a British Comedy Award along the way. Doc Martin debuted in 2004 with Clunes playing the title role, a successful surgeon who developed a blood phobia and had to retrain as a GP. Arriving in the sleepy hamlet of Portwenn in Cornwall, the curmudgeonly doctor with zero interpersonal skills and no bedside manner struggled to fit in – and needed all the allies he could get to negotiate his way around village life, with often hilarious consequences.

The idea of playing a grumpy, socially inept doctor appealed to Clunes. Reflecting on the Doc’s evolution he said: “He is sort of loathsome, but it has defined itself as the series has gone on. He is not unkind, he doesn’t [try] to be unpleasant to people. There is a dryness to him. It’s fun to play.”

Producer Philippa Braithwaite described Doc Martin as “fresh and different”. "We liked the idea of reversing the usual ‘fish out of water’ scenario which can happen when a townie settles in a small rural place. Instead of the village appearing strange and unusual, in our series it is the incoming doctor who is the quirky character, whom the inhabitants find hard to fathom.”

If you’re new to Doc Martin, the previous nine seasons are also available to binge on BritBox, leading up to the brand new tenth season, fresh from UK screens, which sees the Doc questioning whether he made the right decision to resign from his medical practice. He and his wife Louisa (Caroline Catz – The Vice, DCI Banks) have also welcomed a baby daughter, Mary Elizabeth, a sister to four-year-old James Henry. With Louisa pursuing her new career as a child counsellor in his old surgery, the Doc is left literally holding the baby, and indulging his hobby of repairing clocks. Will he be tempted to return to his surgery?

As the curtain comes down on Doc Martin after 18 years, Clunes commented: “I will never get a job as good as this again … just in the sheer joy of it, not being in a city to film it, and being allowed to make something funny in front of a camera, which is my favourite work experience.”

Join him for one last trip to the scenic Cornish landscape for the Doc’s swansong!

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