Martin Clunes ousted from Doc Martin for US remake

Telegraph

10-05-2025

Martin Clunes will be replaced by an Emmy-nominated US actor in a Fox remake of Doc Martin.
Clunes, who played the surgeon-turned-GP in 10 series of the hit ITV drama, has been ousted by Josh Charles.
Known for The Handmaid's Tale, The Good Wife and Dead Poet's Society, Charles will take on the lead in a new version of the set on the east coast of the USA.
The title will be changed to Best Medicine, with Charles portraying 'a brilliant surgeon who abruptly leaves his illustrious career in Boston to become the general practitioner in a quaint East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a child'.
'Unfortunately, Martin's blunt and borderline rude bedside manner rubs the quirky, needy locals the wrong way, and he quickly alienates the town, even though he's all they've got,' the show's publicity material reads.
As viewers of the original will know, the doctor's demeanour masks a 'debilitating new phobia and deep-seated psychological issues that prevent him from experiencing true intimacy with anyone'.
Michael Thorn, president of Fox Television Network, said: 'The story of Doc Martin has resonated worldwide with its humanity, originality, and humour, and with Best Medicine coming to Fox, that eccentricity gets a small-town America spin, complete with idyllic charm and absurdity.'
TV executives had been tight-lipped about whether Clunes would appear in the remake. However, the British star is popular stateside because the original UK show has been a hit on the PBS Network.
Best Medicine will be the seventh international adaptation of the British series.
The ITV original ended with Dr Martin Ellingham choosing to stay in Portwenn with wife Louisa and their children, after a dramatic build-up to a planned move to London. He was last seen letting paper lanterns fly into the night sky, keeping the door open for a return.
Clunes described Doc Martin as 'the best job I'll ever have, I guess'. He said: 'To shoot in a holiday location, with my wife, from my own company, it just doesn't happen like that, does it?
'We've been through four different managements, and we don't even get script notes or notes on edits or anything. We're completely left alone.
'We don't take up anybody's desk time, and it still seems to outperform most of the competition. That's never gonna happen again. So yeah, it's been an amazing job.' Referring to his home in Dorset, he added: 'And it bought us this farm.'
The 63 year-old said he had no feelings of regret leaving the role, adding: 'Nope, not a bit, no. Which isn't to say: 'Goddamn it, I hated that job, I'm glad to be out of it.' It's not that at all.
'It just feels quite organically right to stop, and I think everybody felt that in a way. But I've had quite a bit of street grief from people saying how disappointed they are it's finished.'
Now, Clunes is back on British television depicting a different side of rural life.
In Out There, Clunes plays Nathan Williams, a Monmouthshire farmer whose son is caught up with a county lines drug-dealing gang from nearby Newport. When Nathan confronts them, father and son find themselves in a terrifying situation.
Away from his acting career, Clunes has become embroiled in a long-running battle to prevent his neighbours from creating a permanent travellers' site near his home.
With other villagers in Beaminster, Dorset, he has fought to stop Theo Langton and Ruth McGill, 'New Age travellers', from turning their woodland plot into an official travellers' site.
The couple, who have lived in a 45ft by 16ft caravan on land they own at Meerhay for 25 years, applied for planning permission to continue living there permanently.