Doc Martin Production Notes *** The information contained herein is strictly embargoed from all press use, non commercial publication, or syndication until 00:01 August 31st*** Martin Clunes is back with a brand new series of the ratings winning ITV1 drama Doc Martin. After a two year break to pursue other drama and factual projects, Martin returns to reprise the role of the curmudgeonly Dr Martin Ellingham whose truculent and tactless manner upsets the convivial community of the picture postcard village of Portwenn. In this new series the doc has a dilemma: how to cope with being a new dad while trying to resume his highflying career as a surgeon. Eight 60 minute episodes, written by Ben Bolt, Jack Lothian, Richard Stoneman, Chris Hurford and Tom Butterworth, and were filmed around the stunning settings of the North Cornwall coast. Caroline Catz (Murder in Suburbia, In Denial of Murder, The Vice) returns to play the mother of Doc Martin’s child, primary school headmistress, Louisa Glasson. Ian McNeice (Frankenstein, White Noise, Dr Who) and Joe Absolom (P.O.W, Vincent, Eastenders) are back as father and son, Bert and Al Large, and John Marquez returns to his role as the village policeman, with Selina Cadell as pharmacist Mrs Tishell. Dame Eileen Atkins (Upstairs Downstairs) joins the regular cast as the doctor’s Aunt Ruth, along with Louise Jameson (EastEnders, Dr Who) as Louisa’s mother Eleanor, and Jessica Ransom (Armstrong and Miller Show) as the new surgery receptionist, Morwenna Newcross. They are joined by a prestigious line up of guest stars including Julie Graham (Survivors, Bonekickers, William and Mary), Peter Vaughan (Silk, Lark Rise to Candleford, Christmas at the Riviera), Joanna Scanlan (Getting On, The Thick of It), Robert Daws (Coronation Street, The Royal), Miriam Margolyes, John Duttine and Anne Reid. Martin says: “I missed being in Cornwall, and it has been wonderful to spend a few months in this beautiful part of the country. I am thrilled to have been able to work with such a fabulous cast, and on the exciting new storylines we have for this new series.” 1 The series is one of ITV’s top rating dramas with more than nine million viewers for the last series in 2009. It is produced for ITV1 by Buffalo Pictures, the independent production company owned by Martin and his wife Philippa Braithwaite (Staggered, Sliding Doors, Hunting Venus), who also produces the series. “We’re delighted so many viewers enjoy the series, as much as we enjoy filming and producing Doc Martin with the beautiful backdrop of Cornwall. Our vision is to ensure this series continues to be as fresh, different and bold as when we first went into production,” says Philippa. The new series begins with Dr Martin Ellingham struggling to cope with new fatherhood, as he embarks on a new chapter of his career, which is set to take him away from the small Cornish village. Sleepless nights take their toll on the doc and his partner Louisa Glasson, and put their shaky relationship under strain. Can they make it work this time round? A new GP, Dr Di Dibbs (Joanna Scanlan), and her husband Gavin (Robert Daws), have already moved into his old surgery. But Dr Ellingham begins to have serious doubts about the competence of Dr Dibbs, and, in his familiar tactless way, is not afraid to tell her. The doctor also faces the loss of his Aunt Joan, and has to deal with an equally cantankerous relative who comes to live in Portwenn. Doc Martin is produced for ITV1 by Buffalo Pictures in association with Homerun Productions. The producer is Philippa Braithwaite and the directors are Ben Bolt and Paul Seed. The executive producer is Mark Crowdy. For further information please contact: Naomi Phillipson naomi.phillipson1@btinternet.com 07917 444524 For pictures please contact: Patrick Smith ITV Picture Publicity Manager patrick.smith@itv.com 0207 157 3044 The series will be available to preview on Ready to Air. Please register at www.readytoair.net 2 Martin Clunes plays Dr Martin Ellingham Martin Clunes defied the sceptics who warn against filming with children, and bounced a dozen babies on his knee for the new series of Doc Martin. The babies made their TV debuts as Doc Martin’s new baby son during the four months of filming. Their mums, all from Cornwall, responded to an appeal from the production team for newborn babies to play the starring role. Martin says: “The babies have been with us since they were about two or three weeks old. There is a limit on the number of hours a baby can work, and you can’t predict their behaviour. So having several babies on set all the time, if you want a crying baby you have one, and if you want a sleeping baby you have one. “Working with all the babies has been lovely and really good fun. They have all been so good. There haven’t been any problems even when we worked with the dog and the babies simultaneously, and they say you shouldn’t work with animals and children.” One baby did however miss his cue when he was filming with Martin on Bodmin Moor. “We were filming a scene with baby Tyler in the middle of Bodmin Moor where the doc had taken the baby out in the car to try to get him off to sleep, only to be woken by a tractor, but baby Tyler wouldn’t wake up. “The whole crew were shouting his name, shaking the car seat, I put the radio on in the car, Procul Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale came on really loud. We tried everything: beeping the horn, feedback on walkie talkies but Tyler carried on sleeping. His mum was there and she was in hysterics, the camera carried on rolling as we tried to wake him. He finally woke up when I gently pinched his nose!” The premature arrival of the baby at the end of the last series came just as Doc Martin had said goodbye to general practice, moved out of his surgery, and was about to move to London to resume his highflying career as a surgeon. His relationship with Louisa Glasson, the mother of his child, had broken up. But they had still declared their love for each other. “The doc spends the night after the baby is born with Louisa and it is as if there’s a baby induced truce between them. “Before the dust has settled on that, the doc finds out his aunt Joan has died, that puts a halt on him going straight to London. He doesn’t mind too much because the baby is there and things have changed between him and Louisa, but in an unspoken way. “It is still his plan to go to London but it is delayed for a couple of months. The replacement GP turns out not to be up to it, so he agrees to stay in Portwenn until a new GP can be found. “He half wants to be with Louisa and the baby, but then they have to negotiate how they are going to live the rest of their lives.” The doc and Louisa can’t seem to agree on anything particularly where the baby is concerned. They can’t even decide on a name for their son. 3 “The baby is without a name for some time, and PC Penhale has to remind them they need to register a name. "We named the baby after our Jack Russell terrier James Henry, Philippa and I were firm about this, it wasn't a choice we gave to the writers." The doc struggles to adapt to fatherhood and the dramatic changes the arrival of the baby has brought to his life and his relationship with Louisa. “He doesn’t think he is struggling with the baby. He thinks he knows everything, but he doesn’t, and he doesn’t have Louisa’s instincts. When it comes to reading a bedtime story for his son he reads a medical journal to him. “And when the Doc has to change the baby’s nappy he wears surgical gloves and an apron as if he’s carrying out an operation. “But he does have a rather endearing secret relationship with James Henry, and he really enjoys his time with him.” Martin admits he had missed being in Cornwall for the past two years. “If we ever stopped making Doc Martin I would need to find a way of coming to Cornwall. It has got under my skin. If I was told I could never go to Cornwall again I would really miss it. I have really loved working here. “I never stop finding it exotic. You can look out of your window and see the drama of it all: the cliff edges, the sea changing colour the whole time. I am an outdoors person and to do what I do outdoors is just too lucky to believe.” The popularity of Doc Martin worldwide has brought tourists flocking to Port Isaac in the hope of catching a glimpse of the filming. “The whole Doc Martin phenomenon has changed the village. It is like live theatre in the village when we film. It is good fun. “There are a lot more international visitors who turn up to watch us filming. People seem to really love it. I have never been in a programme where I have experienced that. “I received a round of applause from the crowds watching the filming when I arrived on set one day.” After filming finished at the end of July, Martin took a holiday with his family, and is enjoying riding his new horse, Ben Catel, a dapple grey Lusitano (Portuguese dressage horse). “We bought the horse in Cornwall, so we now have 14 horses at home in Dorset. He is gorgeous. Originally we bought him for me to ride, but now I am being told he is a family horse because everyone wants to ride him.” Since the last series of Doc Martin, Martin has made a second series of the comedy drama Reggie Perrin and a documentary on Manta Rays. 4 Caroline Catz plays Louisa Glasson Caroline Catz has found her little piece of heaven by filming Doc Martin in Cornwall over the past few years. “I really missed being in Cornwall last summer. What was so strange was when I drove back into Port Isaac to start filming this year it was like I had never been away, it seemed so familiar,” says Caroline. “During filming I went back to London at the weekends, but every Sunday when I returned to the village I was always completely awestruck by how beautiful it is. It never wears off. When you drive into the village it is just heaven. “I love all the walks in the area. There is an incredible beach nearby at Polzeath where several of the crew went surfing or body-boarding after filming. I tried to do a bit of bodyboarding this time, but I’m not brilliant at it. “It is sweet; you are with everyone all day on set, then in the evening you are bouncing in the waves with them.” At the end of the last series Caroline’s character, school headmistress Louisa Glasson went into labour prematurely, and gave birth to a baby son. Although the mismatched pair declared their love for each other there was no sign that they’d be getting back together. “One of the things that has been fun about doing this series, and why I wanted to come back for another series, is because I really do want to see what happens to the Doc and Louisa when they have a child, because they have got to do something about their relationship. “I do believe what happens is that there is always something to hook her in. She knows he has personality problems or finds it difficult to interact with people. It doesn’t mean she can’t love him. She knows he is a good person at heart.” The couple begin to realise that not only have they not thought through their lives together over the last six to eight weeks, but not surprisingly they have completely different ideas of what they want for their son’s future. “They can’t even decide on a name for the baby. They are completely hopeless. This is why they split up in the first place. This is why they didn’t get married. “What I love about doing this series is there is something really real and truthful about falling in love with somebody that you are not destined to be with. You see it all over the place. One of the elements of the series that works well is that their relationship is a believable dynamic, but it is pushed out to its most extreme possibility. “This series is about them trying to put everything behind them for the sake of the baby to try and understand a way of being able to live together and understand one another’s differences. “They are muddling through having a new baby who doesn’t sleep - like most people who have had newborn babies will know they don’t necessarily sleep when you want them to They are absolutely exhausted.” 5 Twelve local babies played the role of Louisa’s baby boy throughout filming, and Caroline confesses she wasn’t always sure which baby was being handed to her for a scene. “The babies were adorable. At the beginning I wasn’t sure who I was being handed because newborns can look very similar, and they are all dressed the same of course. I mostly work out who the baby is by looking at the mum who is on set with her baby all the time. “What was sweet was watching them grow up through the episodes. You were being handed babies who were really small three week old babies to start with and we were filming for four months so you saw these little tinies evolve.” The surprise arrival in the village of Louisa’s mum Eleanor (Louise Jameson) just adds to the problems for Louisa and Martin. The estranged mother and daughter haven’t seen each other for seven years, and Louisa can’t help but think there’s an ulterior motive for her mother’s sudden appearance. But at least Eleanor can help them with the care of her grandson. “There is always a bit of suspicion attached to why Eleanor’s around. But in the end Louisa decides perhaps she should be more good-willed about it and believe that her mum has actually appeared on the scene for good reasons, and perhaps she wants to be a good grandparent.” But Louisa’s suspicions are proved right when she discovers her mother is in Portwenn for a business deal, and her method for calming the baby is feeding him a herbal potion which makes him drunk. Just before filming Doc Martin, Caroline made a feature film called I, Anna, with Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling, which will be released shortly. “My character in the film runs a singles club. She is pretty sleazy character, very different from Louisa,” says Caroline. Dame Eileen Atkins plays Ruth Ellingham Dame Eileen Atkins became an instant fan of Doc Martin when she sat down to watch the four previous series after landing the role of Ruth Ellingham in the new series.” “I must admit I had not watched Doc Martin because I don’t watch any series so I don’t get hooked on anything. “As soon as the part was offered to me I got the box set of the series and sat down with my husband, and we thought we would watch one episode. “We watched two straight away, and we then watched the rest of the box set over the next four nights, because we found them extremely engaging, very charming, and we thought they were clever. “I think Doc Martin is wonderful. It is a fresh idea and it has so many things in it. It has comedy, scenery, wonderful performances, not just Martin, who is supreme as a comedy 6 actor, but there are lots of other brilliant actors. And what I think is an absolute winner is every week you learn about a medical condition without seeing anything horrible.” Dame Eileen plays the Doc’s Aunt Ruth who comes to Portwenn following the death of her sister Joan. “She is a criminal psychiatrist which I thought was a very interesting character to play. It is dull playing the nice, good, sensible person. I love playing characters who are a bit rude. “Ruth has a lot of the difficult social attitudes that Martin has although she is not as bad as he is, and she is not quite as rude as he is. “She comes down just for the funeral, but then finds her sister’s farm has been left to her, she’s half deeply moved and half furious and that this puts her in a quandary. Then she decides to start living there because she wants to write a book. She always insists she doesn’t like country life but she is inevitably drawn into it.” Ruth finds she needs help with the farm, and employs Al Large (Joe Absolom) to do odd jobs around the place. They soon forge a strong, but unlikely friendship. “I didn’t expect these two to become friends, but then I thought it is perfect because Al is the same age as probably a lot of the men she has been dealing with in Wormwood Scrubs. “She sees him at first as a bit of a loafer. He shows her that she doesn’t know anything about country life, and she starts to see in him that he has some wit, and is a lot more intelligent than she first thought because he beats her at chess. So they do strike up a very close friendship to such a degree that his father is quite jealous of their relationship.” Dame Eileen says that part of the attraction of the role was being able to spend four months in Cornwall. “To be paid to stay in Cornwall made it a very lovely job. I have written to friends saying this is one of the most enjoyable jobs I have ever had. I stayed in a lovely house, with a fantastic view of Port Isaac and I could walk to my heart’s content.” On her days off Dame Eileen explored the coastal walks around the village, and walked on Bodmin Moor. She has had a life long love of Cornwall, since one of her first jobs after leaving drama school was in Perranporth. In the mid-Fifties, at the age of 19, she joined fellow students to form a co-operative to perform plays, living in a local school in Perranporth, and then moving to a house in nearby St Agnes. “We didn’t have any money so we hitchhiked down to Cornwall. It was a very volatile, exciting time and we were quite ambitious in what plays we did. We used to take turns each day to run along the beach with a banner advertising to the holidaymakers what play we would be performing that evening, hoping it would rain so people would come in to watch, and we got them in. “Recently someone in Perranporth sent me a recording she’d found in her father’s things after he’d died of me playing a woman in her late forties in Deep Blue Sea when I was 19. 7 “Starting my acting career in Cornwall gave me a life long love of the area. It did make me want to live in Cornwall. I have come every year since I have been married, so that’s a long time now, 36 years. “Although I started in North Cornwall, we always go to South Cornwall now because I am a bit of a softie and I do like to walk a lot, and it is much easier and gentler to walk in the south. But Martin Clunes is right about the sunsets in North Cornwall. They are sensational.” Dame Eileen lives in London but admits she didn’t miss the city while she was filming Doc Martin. “The only thing I have really missed has been my cats because my husband came to stay. I did go back to London do a job for ten days, and I was quite discombobulated. I really felt peculiar being in London.” The celebrated actress has enjoyed a series of television roles over the past two years, including Cranford, Psychoville and Upstairs Downstairs. But she is looking forward to a return to the theatre. “I am a theatre actress and there is a little nag in me that is wanting to go back to the theatre. Eighteen months ago Trevor Nunn booked me for 2012 but didn’t tell me what it was he was booking me for. I said if he was directing I’d be in whatever he would like to give me. “I’ve also written a play, I’ve adapted from an Australian book called The Spare Room for myself and Vanessa Redgrave. We have an agreement we will try to do that next year.” This Autumn Dame Eileen begins filming a new series of Upstairs Downstairs. Ian McNeice plays Bert Large Ian McNeice is so convincing as the jovial restauranteur Bert Large that tourists in Port Isaac have tried booking tables at his restaurant. A stunning house with a terrace garden overlooking Port Isaac harbour is transformed for filming into Large’s alfresco restaurant, complete with twinkling fairy lights. “People have begun to believe that Large’s Restaurant is real. There has been many a time when I have been rehearsing here with Joe Absolom, who plays my son Al, when I looked up and there was a whole family looking at me asking if they could book a table for the evening. “I think Port Isaac deserves a Bert Large restaurant, 24 hours. I am thinking of opening up my Bert Large restaurant here. I think it would do very well,” he chuckles. Ian has become a very familiar face in Port Isaac. He moves from London for the four month of the shoot and takes up residence in a house overlooking the picturesque Port Isaac harbour. 8 “Unlike a lot of other people who come and go, we always go down lock stock and barrel for the four months. We live in Port Isaac, we don’t go away at the weekends. So when we do go at the end of the shoot it is a wrench to leave. “I am very involved in the village itself. I always introduce The Fishermen’s Friends concerts every Friday night on The Platt. I get involved in local events and charity work. “I love the atmosphere. I love being down here, and I love being by the sea. I think it is becoming more and more likely I could end up living somewhere like this, if not here, certainly somewhere by the sea. “Bert in particular is a very dear character to me and Al (Joe Absolom) has become like my own son as well. It was so lovely to see him again. We do work very well together, we have a chemistry which is great.” In the new series Bert Large’s restaurant has financial troubles, and with son Al working with Ruth Ellingham, Bert is struggling to keep the restaurant afloat. He is at loggerheads with the landlord of the village pub who tries to undercut Bert to attract more customers. “When Bert is left to his own devices he is not the best of people, and Bert soon gets into trouble financially with the restaurant.” Bert thinks there is something very strange going on with the pub landlord, Mark, and discovers that Mark has been importing some duty free contraband into his pub and selling it at low prices. “Then he gets involved with a loan shark which brings more grief. So really Bert goes from bad to worse. “There is one silver-lining to the clouds over Bert: Louisa’s mother, Eleanor, comes up with the idea of a Spanish evening at the restaurant which brings in quite a bit of cash. The Spanish night saves the day to a certain extent. It is a rollercoaster ride again for Bert.” Ian says he was amazed by the flood of Doc Martin fans coming to the village to watch filming. “It is like a mecca for Doc Martin fans in Port Isaac. We now have an immense amount of spectators from all corners of the world. I met people from Japan, South America, Iceland, it is phenomenal. It is caused such a huge attraction when we filmed in the village, it was really quite a big event. “It was like doing live theatre especially when we were shooting the restaurant scenes down on the terrace. The tourists all stand above and look down on us, and that really is like looking down from the gods in the theatre, into the pits where we are performing.” Since the last series Ian has starred as Winston Churchill in Dr Who, and played Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII at London’s Globe Theatre. “I am now also a Dr Who convention whore. I go all over the world to Dr Who conventions; I have been to Chicago, Los Angeles, all over England, and in October I am going to New York. They are huge events. I am hoping now that we will have Doc Martin conventions,” says Ian. 9 Joe Absolom plays Al Large Joe Absolom’s little daughter did so well at the local village school in Port Isaac while he was filming Doc Martin that she picked up the Cornish accent. “Lyla really excelled at the school. It was a mini social experiment. We took her from an inner London primary school where there were thirty kids in the class to a rural school which has a lot more time for the kids. Her reading and writing excelled. She had such a great time she didn’t want to leave. “Lyla nearly had a Cornish accent. She got influenced saying words how Cornish people say them. But I beat it out of her!” he jokes. “Port Isaac has really made an impression on her. We got her a place in the village school where there were seven kids in her class; seven boys and her. She had been drawing hearts and flowers and princesses, then she came home after six weeks at the village school and drew an army tank for me.” Joe and his partner Liz have taken Lyla to Port Isaac since she was a baby, and celebrated her fifth birthday this summer at a cafe in the village. This year they were able to introduce Lyla’s little brother Casper to Cornwall. Casper was born almost a year ago, and Joe says he loved being able to spend time with his son and daughter in Cornwall. “I am enjoying fatherhood a lot more the second time around. The first time you are petrified you are going to drop the baby, and you are going to cause it harm. The second one is a lot more fun, and personally I have enjoyed it a lot more, even though he doesn’t eat and sleep when he is supposed to do. “I do like London and everything that goes with it. But being in Cornwall has made us think about the future a bit more. Having kids does. Cornwall is a great place to have little kids, not so sure about when they are 13 or 14, and the bus is only every two hours and it’s not easy to get around.” This new series sees Joe’s character Al Large swap jobs - from helping his dad run Large’s restaurant to becoming an odd job man for the Doc’s Aunt, Ruth Ellingham. “Al is a bit bored with working in a struggling restaurant. After Joan’s death Al takes it upon himself, because he is generally a nice bloke, to look after the animals on Joan’s farm until everything is sorted. “He meets Joan’s sister Ruth Ellingham, who has inherited the farm. She offers him a job and it blossoms into a full time position. “So Al goes from restauranteur to farm manager which I think is a bit more exciting for him. It’s outdoors and less about putting in ingredients, figures and overheads and trying to make money selling chips, and he is more suited to feeding chickens than cooking them. “I am not sure whether it is dramatic licence or Al is genuinely a man of many talents. One thing is certain that when we go to Port Isaac people all have different hats on. You have 10 to turn your hand to different things in small communities like that - so you could be rescuing someone from the sea as a member of the lifeboat crew one minute and running a cake shop the next. It is survival.” Joe admits he was slightly taken aback when he read the scripts about his new relationship with Ruth. “At first I thought it was going to be love! There’s a scene where Ruth pours a glass of wine, and then she pours Al one and motions for him to sit. When I read it in the script it looked as if it was getting romantic. “It was very interesting to work with someone of her calibre. I was slightly in awe of her reputation. After the first day of filming with her I forgot about that and just enjoyed the work. “We got on very well. She is very funny, she has a wicked sense of humour and is not afraid to apply that to herself and be quite shocking. “You can tell she has had a fantastic and varied career and life. She is a very wise and knowledgeable person. She is a great story teller, just very interesting to listen to. “When she left she got me a nice picture of a chicken, because I looked after her chickens in the story, and wrote a lovely message saying ‘thanks for looking after the chickens and this old boiler’. She said ‘put this in your daughter’s room’ and it is lovely so I am looking forward to putting that up on the wall. It was a nice touch.” Since the last series Joe has played a psychopath in the Sky 1 detective series Thorne. He also faced tough challenges when he spent four weeks in the Arctic to take part in ITV’s survival programme 71 Degrees North, where he had to share a tent with five others as temperatures plunged to minus 30. “Every night when you went to sleep in a tent it was so cold my beard froze, and you daren’t leave the tent so if you wanted a pee you had to fill up a bottle, and that froze too. “There were moments when you think ‘I’d just like to be on a beach in Port Isaac’. But you get through it, and you feel great when you do get through, you wake up with that fantastic feeling that you’ve survived. It was an amazing, life-affirming experience which makes you really appreciate things,” says Joe. John Marquez plays PC Joe Penhale John Marquez as the village policeman PC Joe Penhale in Doc Martin has a dilemma to solve when his ex-wife turns up out of the blue. He’s delighted to see her but puzzled because she seems to have completely forgotten that they divorced two years ago. “Maggie (Julie Graham) left Penhale a couple of years ago and broke his heart. Then she comes back into his life, but has forgotten they ever split up. She has amnesia, which dawns on him quite quickly. 11 “So Penhale has this dilemma; he is ecstatic at seeing her and the fact she wants to be with him and kiss him, but at the same time he realises it is wrong not to refer her to the doc for medical help. “They split up because Penhale wasn’t macho enough. He had promised her life would be a roller coaster, but it’s really not very exciting being with Penhale. “He tries to prove to her that he has changed, and ends up paying a couple of people to allow him to arrest them, and behave in quite a macho way, just in front of Maggie. But it doesn’t work. “In the end he tries to get involved with a real incident and gets stuck up a ladder, frozen with fear and can’t get down, so Maggie realises he hasn’t changed at all.” The arrival of Maggie leads to PC Penhale getting a little hot under the collar when she makes amorous advances as he’s preparing a night cap. And it provided interesting scenes for John and Julie, who have been good friends for 20 years. “There was a lot of kissing and stuff with Julie for the scenes, which was really strange. I am a massive fan of hers, she is an incredible actress as well as a friend, so it was a thrill to work with her. “Julie is godmother to my ten year old daughter Elsie, and our girls play with Julie’s girls, as we all live in Brighton.” John is delighted when viewers tell him they feel sorry for his character because he is always messing things up. “I like comedy that comes with emotion, and I feel Penhale has a really good heart. A lot of the time it is a mixture of feeling sorry for him, which I blame on when I was very young I had a fascination for Bobby Ball from Cannon and Ball. “I used to watch him again and again. It was that thing of someone who can play on being funny and getting an audience to go ‘aaah’. I love that. It is a good trait to have, and I think Penhale has loads of it. He tries his hardest and always messes up.” Penhale is certainly proving to be a popular police officer, particularly in the States. “The feedback I get is always very positive. Some people say Penhale is their favourite character. Someone told me I was big in Detroit! The series has been sold over there and the Americans are going mad for it.” John had promised himself he was going to make the most of his time off in Cornwall and master the surfboard. “Before I thought I would just be able to get in the water and do it. But it is so hard, and I don’t like being so bad at it. I can’t accept walking out of the water with the big surfboard and looking like an absolute beginner. That’s a vanity thing. 12 “But I have taken up kite surfing after being given lessons for my birthday.There is lots of kite surfing where I live, so once I get brave enough you will see me being taken away by a kite!” After the last series of Doc Martin John returned to the theatre to do Flea in Her Ear at the Old Vic, House of Games at the Almeida, and Annie Get Your Gun. Louise Jameson plays Eleanor Louise Jameson sat on her bed and made a wish to land a role in a popular television series and just two weeks later she was offered a prime part in the new series of Doc Martin. “Coming to the series felt like a sixtieth birthday present for me,” says Louise, who turned sixty earlier this year. “I was sitting on my bed and I put it out to the universe, and said out loud that I wanted to do a comedy cameo in an established series, as if I was ordering something from the supermarket. “It sounds so hippy, but it worked. Literally the next day my agent rang me to tell me I had an interview for Doc Martin. “I ummed and ahhed about going to the interview because I was up in Liverpool playing Jocasta in Oedipus, a far cry from this role, and it cost £200 to get all the way to London and back again. But I thought, ‘come on, this is what you asked for, go and get it’. Two weeks later I was offered the role.” Louise’s debut in the series comes in episode four. She plays Eleanor Glasson, Louisa Glasson’s estranged mother who arrives in Portwenn unexpectedly, shocking her daughter. She had abandoned Louisa as a child when she decided to live in Spain with her lover. Mother and daughter haven’t seen each other for seven years when they were briefly reunited at Louisa’s grandmother’s funeral. Her reception in the village is at best luke warm: Louisa is suspicious of her mother’s motives, and Dr Martin Ellingham can barely contain his dislike for this hippyish woman. “Eleanor is the mother-in-law from hell. It is instant dislike between Martin and Eleanor, and they battle over Louisa and the baby through the whole series. “She is an absolute nightmare. She is opinionated, she’s hypocritical and she’s manipulative. But because I am playing her I see her as having the best intentions in the world. She has a heart of gold, nothing is ever her fault. She is a chain-smoking vegetarian who eats fish. Everything is a kind of contradiction with hippy tendencies. “I think Eleanor is fabulous, she just verges on Ab Fab. We don’t go to the farcical comedy, but she does smoke cigarettes over the baby. She is a bit of a child, whereas her daughter Louisa is much more the grown up. 13 “She is incredibly selfish but can’t see it. She really opens her mouth and puts both feet in all the time. “Poor Louisa, who is trying to hold down a job, salvage a relationship, has a new born baby she is very anxious about, and now she has an added problem with her mother. Eleanor thinks she is being hugely helpful but she just adds to the stress.” Eleanor pretends to have come to Portwenn to see her grandson, and to help her daughter. But it quickly becomes clear she does have ulterior motives for being in the village. “Everybody thinks she is having an affair with an old childhood sweetheart, Paul, a local fisherman (played by John Duttine). But in fact she is setting up a business with him. She doesn’t scotch any of the rumours. “She likes the fact they think she has come into town and swept this man off his feet. Louisa is a bit hurt by it all because she had thought her mother came back for her, not to set up a business.” Eleanor also tries to help Bert to overcome his financial problems by organising a Spanish night at the restaurant. But in the middle of preparing the tapas Eleanor becomes dangerously ill with a strangulated hernia. “Even though the Doc loathes me, has to perform a life-saving operation. So I had a very glamorous day on set with a prosthetic stomach for that scene. I looked like a lump of lard. All ego had to be left at the studio door.” Celebrating her sixtieth birthday this year proved a turning point for Louise. “It has been an amazing year: turning 60, working with Steven Berkoff, my own fringe company just beginning to take flight. I set up as a producer of small scale shows mainly comedy and music in my home town of Tunbridge Wells. I have also started writing plays, one was performed at the Brighton Festival and one for the Edinburgh Festival next year. “Being in Cornwall has been so inspiring. When I wasn’t filming I was kicking my heels a bit, so I started writing a novel, part of which is set in Port Isaac. I have a publisher already, how lucky is that?” Louise also teaches drama to teenagers at weekly sessions in Tunbridge Wells. The iconic role as Dr Who’s assistant Leela, which brought her fame and thousands of fans worldwide, still means Louise is in demand to attend Dr Who conventions. She is booked to go to conventions in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles later this year. Jessica Ransom plays Morwenna Newcross Comedy actress Jessica Ransom faced two big challenges: making her television drama debut in Doc Martin and arranging her wedding. 14 Jessica is already well known on the comedy circuit for her one woman stage shows, and her appearances in the Alexander and Miller Show. But Doc Martin is her first dramatic role on television. She plays the new surgery receptionist, Morwenna Newcross who comes into the series in episode two, initially working for Mrs Tishell the chemist. She’s fired after one day in the shop for her attitude. Then a vacancy arises at the doctor’s surgery for a new receptionist, and Morwenna talks her way into it. “Morwenna is quite mouthy, doesn’t suffer fools, and doesn’t mince her words. She has grown up in the village and as a teenager she was a leader of the bevy- the gang of giggling girls on the street of the village, laughing at everything the doc said and sneering at people, and being a bit mean, but in a lighthearted way, not in a trouble making way. “She lives with her granddad, who she is very close to. Granddad is played by the legendary Peter Vaughan. It was pretty amazing to work with him. They have a lovely relationship, he is a kind man. He believes in her whereas a lot of people will criticise her for mouthing off. “Morwenna is so much fun to play; she has an attitude to everything. But she wants to stick at a job because she is fed up with being fired for mouthing off. So I think she does want to keep the job at the surgery. She thinks the surgery is quite a nice place for a gossip. “Morwenna wears pretty extraordinary outfits: little tiny hot pants and things that are quite far away from me. She is not someone who worries particularly about clashing colours. She always wears more jewellery than is necessary, and lots of flowers in her hair. After I had done a week of filming I saw one of the crew in the village and she didn’t recognise me because she had only seen me on set with my false eyelashes and bright turquoise eye make up and hair up in crazy ways. “Morwenna is excited to get involved, like when they do an operation in the surgery. In her head she thinks she can be a surgeon because she has helped the doctor once. She is frightened of needles though.” Even this job is in jeopardy though when the Doc accuses Morwenna of being high on drugs when she arrives for work ridiculously early, and is acting strangely. Morwenna had overslept and been been late for work so her grandfather offered her some of his old army pills to pep her up. “Granddad had found a box of tablets when he had been clearing out the house. The pills turned out to be a kind of amphetamine, given to soldiers during the war to keep them alert. They both end up taking them, and her being young it has comic effects, but granddad collapses having had a heart attack and Morwenna has to give him CPR.” “This is my first TV drama, so it was a big call and completely different from what I have been doing. I didn’t allow myself the possibility of daydreaming about getting the job at all. I thought it was dangerous to start thinking, ‘I will go and live in Cornwall for four months, it will be wonderful’. 15 “Coming onto something like this, which is established and popular, was quite daunting. Also Lucy Punch and Katherine Parkinson, who played the previous receptionists are doing amazing things, so it felt like big shoes to fill. But everybody was very welcoming. “I learnt lots about playing Morwenna by catching the bus to nearby Wadebridge and listening to people talking to each other. You can get a lot by just observing people.” Jessica took driving lessons when she was in Cornwall and even her driving instructor helped her to master a Cornish accent. Sheffield born Jessica went to Birmingham University before moving to London to start her comedy career, writing her own material for one woman shows. She met her boyfriend Ben Wilson while they were at university, and he is also in a comedy sketch group. Ben proposed to Jessica in February this year and they marry in Sheffield at the end of September. “While I was working on Doc Martin I was planning our wedding and going back to Sheffield for food tastings and to sort out my wedding dress. I sat in my trailer on set writing out the wedding invitations.” After finishing filming Doc Martin Jessica spent a month in Edinburgh performing her one woman show, Unsung Heroes about a multitude of characters who are significant and either don’t feel they have been recognised or aren’t recognised. Then she prepared to walk down the aisle. The couple live in London but share a dream to live by the sea one day. Synopsis Episode One Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) is struggling to come to terms with fatherhood. The baby boy born to him and his estranged partner, Louisa Glasson (Caroline Catz) , is about to change their lives dramatically. The curmudgeonly GP with no bedside manner planned to resume his highflying career as a consultant in London. He had packed his bags and moved out of the surgery to make way for the new GP, Dr Di Dibbs (Joanna Scanlan). But the arrival of ‘baby’ - neither the doctor nor Louisa can agree on a name for their son means Dr Ellingham has to adjust his plans. He moves into Louisa’s house to help with the baby, but it is an awkward situation for both of them. Dr Dibbs is newly qualified and excited at the prospect of moving into her first surgery, with husband Gavin (Robert Daws) as the practice manager. However Dr Ellingham begins to have serious doubts about the competency of the new GP after she misdiagnoses a 16 patient, and dishes out prescriptions for totally inappropriate drugs. She even misdiagnoses her own illness, which almost proves fatal. Her confidence is waning fast as Dr Ellingham, in his familiar brash manner, makes clear he doesn’t think she is up to the job. Dr Dibbs realises she has to go, and Dr Ellingham agrees to resume duties at the surgery until a replacement GP can be found. With all the upheaval the doc is unprepared for a devastating personal blow. He hears that his Aunt Joan has died after having a heart attack at the wheel of her car. Episode Two With the departure of Dr Dibbs, Dr Ellingham moves back into his old surgery, agreeing to stay for a couple of months until a replacement can be appointed. Determined to get to grips with fatherhood he asks Louisa to move into his house so he can help to raise their child. He even suggests that Louisa and ‘baby’ could move to London with him. Louisa reluctantly agrees to move into the doc’s house, and offers to help with reception duties, as the previous receptionist, Pauline has left. But Louisa is none too sure about the move to London. She had hoped to resume her career as headmistress of the village school. Villagers pack the village church for the funeral of the doc’s Aunt Joan. They are shocked when Martin’s eulogy becomes a health warning about the dangers to the heart of eating the wrong food. Aunt Joan’s sister Ruth Ellingham (Eileen Atkins) attends the funeral and demonstrates the same cantankerous character as her nephew. She has no more intention of staying in Portwenn than Martin does. But Joan has left her the house and farm. Episode Three Sleepless nights are taking their toll on Dr Martin Ellingham and Louisa Glasson. Tempers are frayed as they try to find ways to comfort their constantly wailing baby. Just as they manage to get him off to sleep, Buddy, the dog who thinks Martin is his best pal, barks and wakes the baby. Exasperated Martin scoops up the little dog and takes him to Aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth has problems of her own: She is dealing with an intruder on the farm who has stolen the hub caps from her car. The thief is identified as Michael Dunwich (Andrew Lee Potts), who lives with his mother Shirley (Miriam Margolyes) on a neighbouring farm. She decides to pay a visit to mother and son. As a psychiatrist it soon becomes clear to Ruth that Michael is a bit odd. He has a collection of metal objects strewn around the garden. Ruth catches him taking pot shots at her hubcaps. 17 Shirley makes an appointment with Martin to discuss the crippling stomach pains she has been suffering. When her son is out of the room, Shirley tells the doc she thinks her son is trying to poison her so he can have the house to himself. New receptionist Morwenna Newcross (Jessica Ransom) fails to make a good impression on the doc by arriving late on her first day. Her grandfather William (Peter Vaughan) gives her some ‘magic pills’ to make sure she is on time, and bright as a button at work. The pills make Morwenna hyperactive and the doc sacks her alleging she is high on drugs. It is only when William collapses with a suspected heart attack that the doc discovers the ‘magic pills’ he and his granddaughter have been taking are actually methamphetamines which were given to soldiers during the war to keep them alert. William appeals to the doc to give Morwenna another chance. The results of the tests on Shirley Dunwich show a heavy concentration of arsenic in her system. The doc immediately calls PC Penhale (John Marquez) suspecting that Shirley is actually being poisoned by her son. There’s a real crime for Penhale to deal with at last, but he seems less than confident about how to proceed. When they arrive at the Dunwich farm they find Ruth trying to help Shirley, and Michael wielding a gun. The gun goes off and Penhale thinks he has been shot. It is the doc who manages to calm the situation and seize the gun. Martin also notices the odour from old wallpaper in the house. He realises the copper arsenate from the old wallpaper which Michael had started to strip had produced deadly fumes and caused Shirley’s illness. Episode Four It’s Portwenn Fun Day and the village is buzzing with excitement about this major fund raising event. PC Penhale is in his element rallying the runners and whipping up support. The event sparks culinary rivalry between Bert Large (Ian McNeice) who runs Large’s restaurant with son Al (Joe Absolom) and Mark (Tim Goodman Hill), the landlord of the Crab and Lobster pub. They are both keen to take advantage of the day to boost their takings by providing food for the runners and spectators. The ‘seafood soiree’ and cut price drinks at the Crab and Lobster look set to win the culinary competition. Bert smells a rat. He suspects Mark is selling duty free booze, and calls in PC Penhale to investigate. But the doc puts paid to Mark’s enterprise when he diagnoses an infection which means he must not handle food, and bans him from going into the kitchen. Bert seizes the opportunity to take over the ‘soiree’. Louisa’s mum Eleanor (Louise Jameson) arrives in Portwenn unexpectedly. Louisa is far from happy about her arrival. She hasn’t seen her mother for years, so why the sudden interest? 18 Martin is even less pleased to see Louisa’s hippyish mother, who takes over his kitchen to cook up a herbal tonic. Eleanor takes great delight in her grandson, and offers to babysit. Martin and Louisa are puzzled to find their previously wailing baby is sound asleep, and continues to sleep through his feed times. Eleanor confesses she gave him a drop of her herbal brew to soothe him. Martin points out that the concoction has alcohol content, which explains why the baby has been sleeping so much. Louisa asks her mother to leave. But Eleanor manages to win her round, and she relents. Episode Five PC Joe Penhale (John Marquez) has an unexpected visitor- his ex wife Maggie (Julie Graham). She appears to have completely forgotten that they split up a couple of years ago. When he tries to tell her they are no longer married she accuses him of over-reacting, and wants to know why he packed his bags and left her. Joe struggles with a mixture of distress and elation at seeing Maggie again. He has thought about her every day since they parted. He realises she is clearly not well, especially when she tells him she thinks it is April 2008, and that she woke up to find him gone, when she has actually been living with another man since their split. He tries discreetly to ask Dr Ellingham about her symptoms without telling him that he is talking about his ex wife. Joe is terrified of losing Maggie again, and wants to make the most of every moment of being back together. He arranges a romantic evening for them at the local restaurant, Large’s, only to find Dr Ellingham and Louisa there. When Louisa invites Joe and Maggie to join them, the doctor quickly spots that Maggie has a problem, and is showing symptoms of transient global amnesia. He tells Joe and Maggie he will arrange urgent brain scans for her to determine the diagnosis. For Joe his hopes of their marriage working again are dashed. It looks as if romance may be in the air for Louisa’s mother Eleanor. She meets an old school friend, Paul (John Duttine), a local fisherman who takes her out on a date. But the relationship is strictly business, as Louisa discovers when Paul collapses on his boat and falls overboard. Paul has stopped breathing and the doctor has to give mouth to mouth to resuscitate him. Eleanor shows such a lack of compassion for the poor man’s condition she is forced to explain to her daughter that she’d struck a deal with a Spanish company to supply seafood, and Paul has been working all hours to meet the demand. Morwenna arrives at work with blood dripping from her foot after standing on a nail. The doctor grimaces at the sight of the blood and fights the nausea rising in his throat as he treats the wound. He is about to give Morwenna a tetanus injection when she disappears from the surgery. She confesses she’s scared of needles. Martin and Louisa’s baby still doesn’t have a name, and PC Penhale warns them that time is running out. If they don’t register a name for the baby soon the State will step in and 19 name the baby. After protracted discussions the couple finally reaches an agreement; their baby son is named James Henry. Episode Six PC Joe Penhale is desperate to keep Maggie and show her he’s changed; that he’s the macho husband she wants. But once she has the all clear from the doctor, Maggie plans to return to Bude. Penhale resorts to desperate measures to convince her to stay, including surreptitiously paying people to be nasty to her so he can step in and assert his authority, and show her he can be tough. His subterfuge almost works. But a final effort at bravado in trying to climb a ladder to rescue school caretaker Mr Coley (Brian Pettifer) from the roof fails miserably. When he is frozen with fear half way up the ladder, Maggie is very disappointed, and Penhale knows he has blown it with her. Mr Coley has become increasingly muddled, and has put the children at risk by spraying poisonous fertiliser. He becomes so confused that he decides to climb onto the school roof, and doesn’t know why he’s there. Seeing Mr Coley swaying precariously on the roof, Dr Martin Ellingham bravely scales the ladder to rescue him. The root of Mr Coley’s problem lies in his potting shed where a paraffin heater has been giving off toxic fumes. Aunt Ruth uncovers a chest of family heirlooms when she clears out a barn at the farm, including photos as Martin as a six year old schoolboy. The photos bring back poignant memories of an unhappy childhood for Martin. It prompts Martin to think of registering James Henry for boarding school. But Louisa is horrified at the thought of sending their son miles away to school. Tension is mounting between Louisa and Martin. They can’t seem to agree on anything, from the schooling for their son, to what to cook for supper. The final straw for Louisa comes when she discovers Martin has set a date for their baby’s christening without even consulting her. Louisa decides she has had enough. She packs a bag, and takes the baby back home to her mum. Episode Seven Bert Large’s restaurant business is financial trouble. He can’t even afford the food and drink for a charity event to raise money for Florence Dingle’s (Anne Reid) cat sanctuary. Mrs Dingle is distraught. She desperately needs the money to continue to look after the cats and kittens in her care. Bert is also being chased by loan sharks Alastair Tonken (Alan Williams) and his son Norman (Marcus Cunningham) for the repayment of £1000 they gave him to clear his debts, warning of repercussions if he doesn’t pay up. Al is furious with his father for losing all their money and bringing them to the verge of bankruptcy. Bert blames Al for spending too much time working for Ruth instead of helping him with the restaurant. When Ruth gives Al £800 to pay for the fencing on the farm he decides to use the money to pay back the some of the loan, even though he is wracked by guilt. Bert and Al manage to scrape together another £200 and present the cash to the Tonkens. But Alastair Tonken tells them they still owe him another £350 for interest and late payment charge. 20 Al says it is time they stood up to the loan sharks and refuse to pay - but just to be on the safe side they want to enrol the help of village police officer Joe Penhale. But PC Penhale says he can’t help them, it is a civil not a criminal matter. Bert and Al confront the loan sharks just as they are approaching Mrs Dingley to pressure her for the money they loaned to her. But Mrs Dingley has fallen off her bike and is lapsing in and out of consciousness, with the doctor and Penhale in attendance. The row between the Tonkens and the Larges becomes so heated that Penhale has to step in to break them up. Summoning up all his authority Penhale tells the Tonkens to leave the village and never come back. Eleanor comes to Bert’s rescue with a plan to boost custom at the restaurant. She tells him she used to run a very successful bar in Andalucia, and suggests they have a Spanish theme night to attract customers. She rolls up her sleeves and begins preparing for the Spanish feast. But she begins to feel very ill and Louisa insists she must see the doc. He diagnoses a strangulated hernia, and says she needs an urgent operation. Morwenna calls an ambulance, but when it goes to the wrong village, the Doc decides there is no alternative: he must operate now on Eleanor in his surgery or she could die. He deftly demonstrates his expertise as a surgeon. Without doubt his swift treatment saves Eleanor’s life. Dr Martin Ellingham is planning to leave Portwenn in a week’s time to resume his career as a surgeon, leaving Louisa and their baby son James Henry in the village. They have their baby’s christening to organise before he leaves. But as usual the doc shows little interest in the event, leaving it all to Louisa. Episode Eight Mrs Tishell’s (Selina Cadell) long standing crush on Dr Martin Ellingham takes a dramatic turn in this final episode in the series. Fuelled by a cocktail of drugs Mrs Tishell can no longer hide her unrequieted love for the doc, and decides she must take drastic action. Her husband Clive (Malcolm Storry) arrives back unexpectedly from his work on the oil rigs announcing his intention to retire so they can spend more time together. It’s now or never for Mrs Tishell to make her romantic notions of a relationship with the doc come true. With baby James Henry in her care, she boards a bus out of the village leaving an enigmatic message for Dr Ellingham to meet them at the castle. Her husband Clive is furious to think his wife has been having an affair with the doc. But Dr Ellingham doesn’t have time to worry about Mr Tishell’s fury. He has to find his baby. 21 Dr Ellingham is joined by Louisa, who is beside herself with worry, and his Aunt Ruth, as they go off in search of Mrs Tishell. PC Penhale is called in; he can barely contain his excitement at having a real crime to deal with. They race to the Castle Hotel where they think Mrs Tishell is, but there’s no sign of her. Mrs Tishell then phones him, but refuses to say where she is. All she will say is that he sent a couple to her to tell her where to meet him. Martin guesses she is referring to a honeymoon couple who had sought treatment from him earlier in the day. A hasty call to Morwenna reveals the couple were staying at Pentire Castle, a magnificent house perched high on a cliff edge with spectacular views of the sea. The perfect romantic rendezvous. Mrs Tishell is watching from a window high up in the castle when Martin arrives. With the baby in her arms she looks perilously close to jumping out of the window. With her background as a psychologist Aunt Ruth urges her nephew to stay calm, and not do or say anything to make Mrs Tishell do anything dangerous. With Louisa urging him to pretend he does love Mrs Tishell, Martin launches into a heartfelt appeal to Mrs Tishell about how he can’t leave the village because of her, he loves her, and begs her for another chance. It is soon apparent that his words were not meant for Mrs Tishell at all, and that he was actually directing them to Louisa. But Mrs Tishell falls for it and rushes to kiss him. He snatches the baby from her, leaving her shocked to see Louisa and Ruth beside him. PC Penhale who has been trying to scale the wall to try out his negotiating tactics on Mrs Tishell, eventually arrives to arrest her. But Aunt Ruth insists Mrs Tishell needs psychological help, and gently leads her away. 22 Cast Dr Martin Ellingham Louisa Glasson Ruth Ellingham Bert Large Al Large PC Joseph Penhale Eleanor Mrs Tishell Morwenna Newcross Dr Di Dibbs Gavin Dibbs Mark (pub landlord) Michael Dunwich Shirley Dunwich William Paul (fisherman) Maggie Mr Tonken Norman Tonken Mrs Dingley Buddy the dog Martin Clunes Caroline Catz Eileen Atkins Ian McNeice Joe Absolom John Marquez Louise Jameson Selina Cadell Jessica Ransom Joanna Scanlan Robert Daws Tim Goodman Hill Andrew Lee Potts Miriam Margolyes Peter Vaughan John Duttine Julie Graham Alan Williams Marcus Cunningham Anne Reid Dodger 23