Martin Clunes addresses 'nightmare' with wife after welcoming new additions to home

Wales Online

09-05-2025

Martin Clunes addresses 'nightmare' with wife after welcoming new additions to home
After the sad deaths of two beloved pets, Martin Clunes bought two new terrier pups – but they brought with them a whole world of trouble, and required some 'punishing' training
Martin Clunes and Philippa Braithwaite bought the two terriers to replace older dogs that had died
(Image: Maarten De Boer, Getty Images )
Martin Clunes admitted his two dogs have been a "nightmare" as they have been causing chaos in the local area. The actor is back on our screens this week with Islands of the Atlantic, discovering the extraordinary wildlife on islands including the Faroes, Madeira, the Azores and Greenland.
But he's had more than his fair share of animal drama at home, too, in the 130-acre Dorset farm he shares with his wife, Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwaite. The TV power couple purchased the dogs as an "impulse buy".
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He told the i newspaper that his two Parson Russell terriers have been a "nightmare," and had been causing chaos in the local area. The two dogs had been "an impulse buy," after the deaths of two other terriers he owned, he confessed: "They're great now, but we've all been on a journey."
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Martin – seen here a dog named Ruby – is a huge animal lover
(Image: Finnbarr Webster, Getty Images )
Martin explained: "They're hunters. I don't have any sheep of my own now, but they got a neighbour's lamb and dislocated her leg. I put her in one of our stables for six weeks and had the vet put her leg in a cast, and the puppies got grounded."
He added that the unruly dogs had to go for a series of "punishing" sessions to make sure they never worry livestock again.
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Under the Dogs Protection of Livestock Act 1953, if a dog worries sheep on farmland, the owner or the person in charge of the dog is guilty of an offence; the maximum penalty can be a fine of up to £1000.
Martin played irascible medic Martin Ellingham in comedy drama series Doc Martin
(Image: TV Times, TV Times via Getty Images )
While Martin's two young pups had been guilty of menacing sheep, Martin and Philip have three other dogs – retired guide dog Laura, cocker spaniel Heidi Mae and her son Bob Jackson – and none of them have been so badly-behaved.
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Unlike Dr Martin Ellingham, the character he played in Doc Martin, Martin has always been an animal-lover.
He even developed a special silent way of "shouting" when a Doc Martin script called for him to shout at his character's rough Jack Russell terrier Buddy, which was played by a dog named Dodger.
Doc Martin, and his Jack Russell terrier Buddy, are now a tourist attraction in the Cornish fishing village of Port Isaac
(Image: James D. Morgan, Getty Images )
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Dodger sadly died due to dementia in 2019, and was replaced by Taffy, another dog of the same breed, for the final series of the show.
Martin revealed his fondness for Dodger: "Me and Sonia Turner, his trainer, and Dodger, we just had such fun on that, y'know?" he said on a recent episode of The One Show. "Pushing the limits of what we could do with him and he was fabulous."
Sonia broke the sad news of Dodger's death on Instagram in 2023. She thanked fans for their good wishes, writing: "A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has taken the time to remember Dodger and send their condolences.
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"Tom and I are truly touched and amazed that our little chap had been taken to heart by so many people, both here and abroad. Bless you Dodger."
Martin Clunes' Islands of the Atlantic airs on ITV this evening (Friday, May 9) at 9pm.