Martin Clunes stars in this traditional and very popular family comedy drama as the doctor who is forced to move to a sleepy Cornish hamlet. Upon arrival Dr Martin manages to insult almost every patient.

After developing a phobia of blood, surgeon Martin Ellingham is forced into a change of career. But while he may have retrained as a GP, he retains the aloof and tactless manner he displayed as a surgeon. When he's unleashed on the sleepy Cornish fishing village of Portwen, the inhabitants are in for a shock - they're more likely to receive cold-blooded diagnoses and personal insults than tea and sympathy.

Things do not start well: Upon arrival, he insults local teacher, Louisa Glasson who inadvertently is on the board that will either accept him or reject him as the new doctor. Luckily, she and the others eventually accept him. Later, Martin and Louisa fall in love and eventually become engaged, but will it last?

The last series began with Dr Ellingham struggling to cope with new fatherhood, as he embarks on a new chapter of his career, which is set to take him away from the small Cornish village. A new GP, Dr Di Dibbs and her husband Gavin have already moved into his old surgery. But Dr Ellingham begins to have serious doubts about the competence of Dr Dibbs, and, in his familiar tactless way, is not afraid to tell her. The doctor also faces the loss of his Aunt Joan, and has to deal with an equally cantankerous relative who comes to live in Portwenn.

2013 Series: Another series is to arrive in 2013. Martin Clunes says: "I'm thrilled to be going back to the beautiful North Cornish coast to shoot series six of Doc Martin. Our challenge this season will be to force Louisa and the doctor to live together with Baby James which as far as I can see has disaster written all over it... And then there's the dog and Dame Eileen but not necessarily in that order!"

Our Review: Doc Martin always looked set to be a hit, however things got off to a rocky start: the show was originally produced as a television movie on Sky but the project was dropped by the channel. The creator then decided to take the show to ITV, but they didn't want the show as it was. Instead, the programme needed new characters and a different approach to the story.

Eventually Doc Martin made it to air. The first series went out during the autumn of 2004 and was an instant hit with viewers. The nasty doctor had won his place in the nation's hearts.

The acting within the series is unquestionably brilliant however one fault is that the characters appear to be flexible in their personalities and reactions to situations. This may be due to the fact that the programme is written by a team of writers, rather than the traditional single writer.

With audiences regularly between 8 and 10 million (last series peaked at 10.9 million), Doc Martin is one of ITV's biggest hits and will presumably be around for many more series, provided Martin Clunes is up for carrying on.