Friday, December 15, 2017

Doc Martin



Doc Martens are shoes but Doc Martin is a British comic television series produced for ITV. And a pretty good series it is.  Set in beautiful Cornwall, Doc Martin (Martin Clunes) is a bit like Basil Fawlty with a stethoscope.  Martin is the Doc with no bedside manners.  He constantly insults his patients.  He is incapable of the polite dissembling that is part of our everyday interactions.  But he is a magnificently qualified diagnosing physician.  Moreover, he is a rarity in the modern world -- a man with a code.  He has a "duty of care" with regard to his patients which he takes with utmost seriousness.

His on-again off again romance with Louisa (Caroline Catz) is central to the charm of this series.  When they first meet by chance on an airplane he quickly diagnoses that she suffers from glaucoma.

The series is blessedly apolitical.  That said, there is an hysterically funny episode that skewers a couple of looney academic liberals who fail to discipline their child and grill badgers on their barbecue.

Doc Martin has won numerous honors in Britain.  It has been adapted into a series in several countries and now a co-creator of Friends is apparently adapting it for American television.  Sigourney Weaver of Aliens fame has guest starred in a handful of episodes.

Doc Martin is funny, intelligent and humane.  A brilliant combination!

You can find Doc Martin on Amazon...www.amzn.com/B06XFWM26Z