10 reasons to be thankful Doc Martin isn't your doctor

10 reasons to be thankful Doc Martin isn't actually your doctor.

Doc Martin episode 2: Martin Clunes continues to shine

Overall, I feel that tonight's episode of Doc Martin represented all that was good and bad about a show which in my opinion is starting to flag after seven series.

ITV welcomes back everybody's favourite grumpy GP Doc Martin for a seventh series. The big difference in this first episode is the fact that Martin (Martin Clunes) is without his wife Louisa (Caroline Catz) who is currently living in Spain with their son. It's clear that Martin isn't coping well with this temporary separation as he isn't sleeping at all and hasn't even agreed to see a therapist. However the mostly idiotic population of Portwenn are causing him to miss various appointments due to the fact that none of them can seemingly make a good decision. This episode's patient of the week was decorator and lifeboat volunteer Steve (Daniel Ryan) who faked a urine test to garner a medical certificate from Martin. However, later he collapsed at the wheel of his lifeboat after suffering a mini-stroke causing Martin and company to come out to sea to save him. I've found that Doc Martin is a show that you have to just go with in order to enjoy as it's incredibly easy to poke holes in especially when it comes to the poorly-written supporting characters. Luckily, the series is well directed by Nigel Cole who made the lifeboat sequence the star of the show as Martin desperately tried to revive his deceitful patient. Clunes was also on form here especially as he's constantly able to make the audience sympathise with his misanthropic GP. The scenes I particularly enjoyed were the ones in which Martin was visibly trying to hold back the emotional pain that Louisa's departure had caused. I'm also looking forward to the rest of the series due to the fact that the brilliant Emily Bevan has joined the cast as Martin's straight-talking therapist Dr. Rachel Timoney. I do feel that Martin may have met his match in Rachel and I suspect that the scenes between Bevan and Clunes may provide the highlights of this series. Despite a few changes, Doc Martin is pretty much offering the same combination of lovely exterior shots, quirky supporting characters and a brilliant central turn that has kept a loyal audience tuned in for six years. However it does seem that this audience is slowly diminishing so I do wonder if this might be the end for Doc Martin especially if the viewing figures continue to dwindle.

There are few real ratings bankers on television but Doc Martin is one of them. The cranky, haemophobic doc (Martin Clunes) in the chocolate box Cornish village has been around for more than a decade now, and is about as safe-a-source of 9  million viewers as a picture of Kim Kardashian's bottom.

Yet nothing actually happens in Doc Martin. It is a drama that negates drama. This new series opener managed to jemmy in a boat crash that was genuinely shocking, if only because so entirely unexpected. Yet within minutes the tone of gentle gaiety was re-established.

Looking at this week's offerings it occurs to me that there are really just three types of drama on television today - the ones where you know what's going to happen, the ones where you don't, and the ones where nothing happens. I leave you to draw your own conclusions from the fact that the dramas that exist mainly to reassure - New Tricks, Death in Paradise, Doc Martin - are by some way the most popular.

Doc Martin review: If I was Cornish I'd be cross

Doc Martin is a good doctor, but the other residents of Portwenn drop their fish and shopping, fail to drop their anchors and crash their boats.

A return for the Cornwall-based comedy-drama starring Martin Clunes as the medic with a personal life so chaotic it could figure as a metaphor for the NHS itself. With Louisa still taking time out from their marriage, the curmudgeonly doc is considering therapy with Aunt Ruth (Eileen Atkins). However, his plans for self-improvement are thwarted when a local lifeboat training exercise runs into trouble. Meanwhile, Al struggles to get his B&B ready for its first guests.

Radio Times review

"Urine! Dipstick! Move!" barks Dr Martin Ellingham at his understandably alarmed receptionist Morwenna. Clearly, despite being heartbroken that his wife Louisa has taken their son James to live in Spain while she works out their marital problems, Martin's bad-tempered demeanour hasn't softened at all since we last saw him. On a more positive note he does agree to see a therapist, although Dr Rachel Timoney (Emily Bevan), while being young and attractive, is almost as acerbic as he is.

There's no sign of Sigourney Weaver or Caroline Quentin yet, both of whom make guest appearances in this series. There's Daniel Ryan as a local lifeboat hero in this episode. But the Cornish scenery is gorgeous, Portwenn is bathed in sunshine and Martin Clunes is as engaging as ever. Around nine million people will be very happy to see this doctor again.

Doc Martin series 7 premiere review (spoilers)

Although I do have issues with some of Doc Martin's characters I have to admit that Jack Lothian's script for this opening episode was perfectly paced.

Doc Martin, series 7 episode 1, review: 'soothing'

The grumpy GP made a welcome return, says Gerard O'Donovan.

Martin Clunes's guide to Doc Martin's Port Isaac

As ITV's much-loved curmudgeon returns for a seventh series, here are its leading man's top five places to visit in north Cornwall...