Another welcome repeat on KCET is ‘Doc Martin’ (Thursdays, 8pm), a catchy comedy drama that stars Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly) as Martin Ellingham, whose truculence and tactless manner causes mayhem in a small Cornish community. The series details the trials and tribulations of the brash Ellingham, once a celebrated London surgeon who left his job after developing a phobia to blood.
This week: Martin is shocked to find locals Louisa and Aunt Joan knocking at his door before his office has opened. Louisa has had a medical scare and wants Martin’s reassurance that everything is fine. P.C. Penhale, still officially the world’s worst policeman, has an unexpected visitor – his older brother Sam. Martin notices that Sam has some problems with his memory and co-ordination. It’s probably just a virus, but when Martin takes Sam’s family history, he decides there is a very small possibility that Sam has a rare genetic disease. It turns out that Martin diagnoses a different illness that will change Penhale’s opinion of his brother forever.
This engaging comedy-drama wareated by Dominic Minghella, it is filmed on location in and around the fishing village of Port Isaac, Cornwall. Look out for repeated references during the series to people being “a bit Bodmin”. This is a reference to the fact that Bodmin was once the centre of mental health care for the South West, and was based at the former St Lawrence’s Hospital site and now at Bodmin Hospital.
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