Watching Doc Martin

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will have discovered that Carol and I enjoy television dramas of a wide variety. We like many of the 'whodunnits' that abound across all the channels, from Father Brown on BBC 1 to Grantchester on ITV to Broadchurch (although that was rather drawn out over three series. The first series was good and the second was just a rehash of the first and the third was reasonable, but all in all it was rather over-egged. Probably just to keep the rating high.) I have mentioned Downton Abbey in earlier posts so there's really no need to rehash what I've already said. The downstairs characters were so much more interesting than the upstairs lot. Nothing further to say on that score.

We're currently watching Doc Martin on catch-up. Fortunately all the past episodes are available through our Sky Q box as a box set. I'm not entirely sure how many series or even how many episodes there have been. We started watching through the Amazon Fire stick, when the first couple of series (seasons to American television audiences) were free. The newer episodes you suddenly had to pay for, which we somewhat objected to, so we stopped watching and then Carol found the later episodes on the ITV Hub through the Sky Q box. And, you don't have to pay for the privilege.

What I in particular enjoy about Doc Martin is that it's so quirky. The central character played by Martin Clunes has so many quirks, particularly his lack of empathy with his patients, his brusque manner with everyone he meets and indeed most of the people he comes into contact with. Then there are the locals, his patient-base, if you like. Most have some weird illness or at least have some odd quirk which makes them interesting. It certainly has a heart and soul which a good deal of modern television drama seems to lack. From the completely incompetent receptionist in Dr Ellingham's surgery to the agorophobic policeman Joe Penhale. You can identify with the characters and they are almost part of the family. Which is why you want to keep on watching. Then there's the location. Portwenn is actually Port Isaac in Cornwall. It looks such an inviting place to visit. I don't expect I'm the only viewer of this show to want to visit and I expect the show hasn't done the real place any harm by attracting visitors and greatly helped the local economy.

There are many television drama series which have managed to use the locations in which they're set to establish character and definite anchor for their storylines and character bases. Look at shows such as 'Inspector Morse,' set in and around Oxford, 'Lovejoy' in and around East Anglia or 'Bergerac' on the Channel Island of Jersey. There are, of course, many more.

Warren Clarke Dies

I've heard the very sad news of the death of the actor Warren Clarke. He was 67. A brilliant actor who seemed to make a career out of being irascible. With a craggy face and deep Northern voice he made a living out of being tetchy and difficult.  Actually, from what I experienced with working with him , he was nothing of the sort. A really nice man and a great actor, who will be greatly missed. I worked on a couple of shows as a walk-on, one being the show which made his name, Dalziel and Pascoe. I did the very first episode and in it he was his partner Pascoe's best man at his wedding. The actual wedding was filmed at a church in Huntingdon and the crew had set up a rain effect near the church door so when the actors came out they got a drenching with fake rain. This was achieved with a set of hosepipes and a sort of sprinkler arrangement out of camera range and over the head of the actors. A few weeks later we went to shoot what was to be the reception at a hotel on the seafront at Cromer. It was filmed out of sequence because of the failing light, with the guests, myself included, seen to be running after the 'happy couple' as they came out of the hotel to leave for their honeymoon. This was complicated by the fact that we had to run through a revolving door, no mean feat to achieve when the door was revolving. I think we did a few takes to get it right. Meanwhile, inside the hotel they had set up a room with tables set around for the reception. We had to sit at the tables as guests. The crew spent most of the afternoon setting up the effect of rain running down the windows of the room to look like rain (to tie in with the rain seen falling in the earlier 'shoot' in Huntingdon. Warren Clarke was, as I say, supposed to be Pascoe's best man and had a long speech to deliver, but when it took a long time to get the rain effect to work at the windows he did a sort of impromptu 'stand-up' comedy routine which kept all the walk-on's, crew and other actors entertained.

I had earlier done quite a lot of work on 'Lovejoy' which was filmed around East Anglia and this series kept me busy over around five years, and I did a lot of episodes and this is show regularly on the Sky digital television channels. Warren Clarke did some work on one episode called 'Bin Divers' where he was a dustbin man involved in a scam when he and his work colleague find antiques in the rubbish which they collect and Lovejoy the antiques expert gets involved.