I think we could all use some good news for a change and I’ve just heard some. Contrary to the rumors there will be two additional series of Doc Martin:
Martin Clunes’ popular ITV drama Doc Martin will finish its run with the ninth series next year, RadioTimes.com can reveal.
This year will see ITV air series 8 of the Martin Clunes drama in which he plays the uptight but brilliant GP who has been relocated to the fictional Cornish village of Portwenn.
But despite rumours that this would be the final series, the show will in fact conclude in 2018 with series 9. Both shows are likely to air in the autumn of their respective years.
Clunes himself, whose wife Philippa Braithwaite runs the production company Buffalo Pictures that makes the show, assures RadioTimes.com that there will be a series 8 this year and a series 9 next year. And then that really WILL be it.
“We start making [series 8] in spring and it’ll probably be on air in the autumn,†he says. So [series 8] is the second to last.â€
If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching the quirky British dramedy, check it out. You’ll be hooked. IIRC it’s streamable on NetFlix, Amazon, Hulu, and Acorn.
I love the show.
I will say that Cornwall is much nicer when you aren’t driving a rented Volvo station wagon down absurdly narrow, hedge-obscured roads with your kids in the back.
Right hand or left hand drive?
When we were in Cornwall we mostly took the train. There were little trunk lines that went practically anywhere you wanted to go. A pleasant, memorable trip.
One of my favorite stories is about an experience in Cornwall. We were waiting in the station of one of the little trunk lines when a man came up and began to speak to me in the thickest possible Cornish accent. After a few heartbeats I realized that he was asking me for directions. When I looked at the people in the station more closely I realized that they and I bore a superficial resemblance to one another—same hair color, same skin tone, similar builds. I was taller but otherwise similar. He had mistaken me for a local.
I did what I generally do in such circumstances. I told him that I was just a dumb Yank.
Cornish roads don’t have enough room for a right and a left.
Right hand drive. Definitely should have trained it.
For any readers who aren’t aware of it Cornwall is a duchy in the southwest of Britain. It has a mild, almost Mediterranean climate and is largely rural. The whole duchy is like a picture post card.
The television program Doc Martin is set in a fictitious town in Cornwall. Cornwall is also a favorite setting for novels by Daphne Du Maurier.
The people of Cornwall spoke a distinct Celtic language, closely related to Breton, until the 18th century when the language died out. My understanding is that there’s an attempt to revive it using Breton as a base. There is still a strong, distinct Cornish accent.