I really am very FORTUNATE'

We talk to Martin Clunes about die-hard fans, turning 60, and the final series of Doc Martin

- RICHARD BARBER

Martin Clunes is M counting his blessings. He never imagined, he says, that here we'd be discussing the 10th, and final, series of Doc Martin - which is currently airing on ITV when he first conceived the idea back in 2004.

'I couldn't have predicted it would take off in the way that it did.' How then does he explain its success? 'I think it may have something to do with the fact there are no murders or rapes or darkness in it.'

So why bring it to an end? 'Because we'd only start getting repetitive,' says the actor. 'We were very conscious of wanting to close the circle rather than allowing it to drift into being an ongoing soap opera.'

For anyone late to the party, Martin stars as Dr Martin Ellingham, the GP with a brusque bedside manner and a phobia of blood, in eight new episodes set in the idyllic (fictional) hamlet of Portwenn in Cornwall. As before, Port Isaac provides the picturesque backdrop for the drama.

Apart from regulars Caroline Catz (as the doc’s wife, Louisa), Dame Eileen Atkins (his formidable Aunt Ruth), Ian McNeice and Joe Absolom (hapless local trader Bert Large and his son, Al), and Selina Cadell (pharmacist Mrs. Tishell), there’s never been a shortage of splashy guest stars. But, perhaps most surprising of all, was when Sigourney Weaver fetched up in the show. A friend of Selina Cadell’s from their days at drama school, Sigourney made it clear there was nothing she’d like better than a guest role in Doc Martin. ‘And she was wonderful,’ says Martin. ‘In fact, she appeared more than once.’