All I Wanted To Do Was Act. It Made Me So Happy

The immensely talented Dame Eileen Atkins is one of our most revered actresses, with a BAFTA, an Olivier and an Emmy to her name. As Doc Martin returns to our TV screens, Eileen shares her love of acting with Richard Barber

- Richard Barber

When she was offered the role of Doc Martin’s psychiatrist aunt, Ruth Ellingham, Eileen Atkins had a confession to make. ‘I’d never watched the show. So they sent me a box set and my husband and I settled down to sample an episode.

‘As it turned out, we watched three in a row. I found it enchanting. Why on earth hadn’t we watched it before? So I said it would be lovely to do eight episodes. And here we are, 32 episodes later…

‘We won’t film what may be the final series until the year after next. So there’s a 20-month gap, which means you don’t feel as if you’re in a soap. And it keeps you fresh for when we return in spring 2019.’

And will that be it? ‘Each time, they say the next one will be the last. But it’s very popular – in America, too – so we’ll see.’

There’s another reason she likes the gappy schedule. ‘I’ve always thought it bad for an actor to be too readily identified with a particular role. It’s why I refused to appear in Upstairs, Downstairs in the 70s. Jean [Marsh] and I had written it and she of course played Rose throughout. But I thought it might limit any other work I wanted to do.

‘But it suits me at my age to be in a relatively small part in a series like Doc Martin. It also represents my pension. Two or three elderly actresses I know have said to me how much they’d love a role like Ruth.’