ON SET WITH DOC MARTIN | Really, he’s not a grump

I did, and she did, and we did.

And hectic months later my partner and I arrived at Port Isaac, the fictional Portwenn, in Cornwall, on the far south-west coast of England.

We were in a converted barn at Roscarrock, on a working farm up the road from Port Isaac. Every couple of years the Doc Martin crew set it up as a makeshift studio, gutting it at the end. As barns go it’s quite big; as TV studios go it’s tiny.

The interiors are shot there – the surgery, Al Large’s distillery and Louisa’s kitchen, nursery and bedroom. That was where Martin and I did our main interview, sprawled on Louisa’s double bed, so cramped were other options. “This is a first for me,” Martin said. “Never got onto a bed with a journalist before!” A first for us both.

I asked about the relationship between the town and the show, given the Doc Martin crew overrun the place for six months every couple of years. It’s a known fact, in TV circles, that Barwon Heads quickly grew tired of SeaChange usurping their town near Geelong, to the point visitors still get cold-shouldered if they dare ask about it.

Martin was disarmingly honest about antagonism to the show from some villagers (“I’ve only been driven off the road once this year”). And we spoke about Sigourney Weaver returning this season (bigger role this time).

We watched a scene being shot. Squashed at the side of the surgery set, just out of lens range, we watched Martin, as bad-natured Dr Ellingham, hobble in on crutches, trip, stumble and fall, again and again and again, filmed from every conceivable angle, collapsing each time on cue. He must be completely black and blue, I remember thinking. It took all morning and lasts barely a minute in episode 6 of series 8, now screening here on the ABC and iView.

At a time when villages are struggling to stay afloat along comes Doc Martin and preserves Port Isaac for posterity, giving it a shot my arm and making it a tourist attraction for people from all round the world. They should be bloody grateful, right?

Well, it was already a pretty thriving tourist attraction before we came here. They're all holiday cottages and those were doing well but only during the short summer season. I think it's fair to say we did boost visitors outside that tiny season. I do know for a fact the co-op was gonna shut because it couldn't survive just selling to people during the summer. Now there are visitors all year round, yeah, so I s'pose we've done that but I make no claims [chuckles].

You've done an awesome PR job for this unit. I’ve interviewed shopkeepers publicans, taxi-drivers and others round the village and there are two schools of thought [Martin chuckles]: unabated enthusiasm for you or begrudging admiration and gratefulness.

Great. We've arrived at that place then. But they used to hate us! Well, a lot of very vocal people, people used to say the most appalling things about us and me and particular in their local paper.

What did they say?

Oh, ask them! [chuckles] Just horrible, scurrilous and untrue. But he seems to have stopped now [chuckles]. It must be a mixed blessing to have us. It's great for businesses here because we bring a footfall through but I know that the second-home-owners might mourn the loss of the quiet place they had outside the summer because there are people here all the time now.

But, you know, some people do well out of it and some maybe not so well. It would always be a mixed blessing and we've been through every shade of acceptance and unacceptance, approval and disapproval. But I do think we've arri . . . well, we seem to be at a happy place now. I've only been driven off the road once this year – by a man who actually has a business that wouldn't exist without Doc Martin [chuckles].

The show has contributed a lot to the local economy, not just tourism, holiday rentals, but you've also given money for various things round the town.

Well, we set up a trust with profits from our overseas sales that’s theirs. It's doing quite well, it's quite a healthy sum now. It’s to benefit the people of Port Isaac as and when they see fit.

David Raynor, chairman (or mayor) of St Endellion Parish Council, told us: Doc Martin gave us £80,000 [$A138,000] for carpark toilets and $A172,000 to the Doc Martin Fund – $A120,000 to public defibrillators, village-hall elevator, school breakfast club, travel costs for swimming excursions, village Christmas lights, Golden Circle seniors club, Pisces historical society and Carnival Committee. All Doc Martin donations are earmarked for benefiting the young and the elderly. There is no public signage that these projects are funded by Doc Martin.

Plus every time we visit here we put about a million pounds into the economy just by being here, renting their places and eating and living here.

Most people come here for a holiday but when you’re here it's sheer bloody hard work.

Yeah, yeah [chuckles]. It's work. It's what you do isn't it. Yeah, I don't come here for a holiday. But it is still a holiday destination, that’s not wasted on me. I do work long hours but I do love being here. I really love it.

When does your average day here begin and end?

Every day starts on camera at 8am but I need to be in and processed, costumed, made-up before that. Then we do an 11-hour on-camera day. I'm in at 7am and we wrap at 7pm.

Where do you stay?

Just up the coast outside Port Isaac in a cottage we've been lucky enough to hire every time we've done this. It's very isolated and very alone. I don't think I'd fare too well in Port Isaac if I stayed there.

But you and all the cast do put in a lot time mixing with the locals and tourists – that must be exhausting, yet crucial to the show’s acceptance in the community.

Well, we sort of form part of the temporary community when we're here. I’ve heard locals say it’s a place built to accommodate visitors. We're familiar visitors because we keep coming back. So we're not strangers and yeah, yeah, we do spend time with people in the village. There’s always a crowd when you're filming down in Port Isaac, you can't avoid them, and the interaction is nice. They're on-side, they're nice.

I've filmed in London and people beep their horns and you feel exposed and stupid and embarrassed about standing there with a huge boom pole and camera in your face. But filming in Port Isaac since the first time I ever did it has always felt completely natural.

Clearly the show and the village have had ups and downs in their relationship . . .

We've never taken steps to ingratiate ourselves, we're a professional outfit, we've always used good manners, pay fees where fees are due, the same as any other film unit anywhere. That's all you can do. Despite the bad PR we’ve been given but we've never countered it, you know. We sort of don't have to, it's quite plain what we’re doing here.

You have to show good manners and consideration for people going about their lives. It’s not our first barbecue [chuckles], we've been doing it for a while. It’s nice to hear people have said good things to you about us. Yeah, that's a nice change [chuckles].

I love the speech in season 7 episode 2 where your character lists all the things wrong with him, it’s quite a list, and then he fairly and squarely sheets home the blame to his parents and a bad childhood! Brilliantly written, delivered.

Oh, yes, when he’s sent to the counselor! Yes, it always amuses me for some reason that these things in a real child would be awful but here they always make me laugh [laughs]. But his parents were pretty grim! They didn't want him, he was an unwanted child.

I read constant references to the fact Doc Martin has been cancelled. And I read where you say "We've just been signed for one more season but that’ll be the last" . . .

It's like Frank Sinatra's career, isn't it!

Or James Bond’s. Every time Bond has to be resigned the actor of the day always says "I'm never doing another one", like a ploy for a better contract.

Well, you'll notice the parallels. Every time they're looking for a new James Bond I say that's the last Doc Martin cause I'm expecting the James Bond call. But it hasn't come so I come back and do another Doc Martin.

In the [UK] Radio Times you're quoted saying season 9 is the last.

We only get to make this if we get a commission from ITV and that's been a year-by-year thing. So we now know season 9 is the last commissioned but I mean probably the last. It’ll be time to move on gracefully.

Move onto what?

Retirement. I'd never get a better job than this. I absolutely love it. In the beginning you think three or four seasons would be nice but that's probably enough because we’re so knackered at the end of each season.

It has to be perform well before we get our prize of another commission. So it's half self-preservation to say OK, that's it. we'll draw a line under it here. I’ve said it'll be the last in the past but I'm loving it so much now I probably should be stopped from doing any more.

There's a version being made in The Netherlands . . .

Yep, there's a Spanish one too, a French one, German, Russian. They keep threatening to get all these grumpy doctors to meet up at some TV market!

And Marta Kaufman [creator of Friends and Netflix’s Grace and Frankie] is keen to develop a US version.

Yes, very, and she champions it. They’d need to make it radically different because there are so many different versions already. They're looking more at a half-hour sitcom version which I'd be fascinated to see.

By the way, you know Sigourney [Weaver] is coming back? She's got a much bigger part this time. It's the same character but she’s got loads more to do. She has a fight with Mrs Tishell. That’s the last episode this season.

She's off doing a bit of Avatar now so when they’ve washed the blue off her she'll come and do Doc Martin. Whatever happened to Harvey Keitel, I wonder? He asked us if he could be on the show, too, and naturally we said yes . . .

Martin, we need you on set please.

Oh, gotta go! More later!