Dominic Minghella

Doc Martin Christmas Special, ITV review

Santa comes to Portwenn as the final curtain falls.

Adam Sweeting, The Arts Desk, 26th December 2022

The ratings-gobbling Martin Clunes vehicle is back for a fifth run, following a two-year gap, to reclaim its crown from New Tricks as the nation's favourite TV drama. Clunes stars as miserable medic Dr Martin Ellingham (the surname's an anagram of series creator Dominic Minghella's, trivia fans). As the eight-part run begins, he's struggling to come to terms with new fatherhood and poised to leave picturesque Cornwall to resume his career as a high-flying surgeon in London. Only there's two problems: a personal tragedy and the fact that his replacement as village GP, the newly-qualified Dr Di Dibbs (Joanna Scanlan from The Thick of It), is dangerously incompetent.

Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 9th September 2011

In itself, it's quite enjoyable; and I dare say there isn't a single person in Britain who won't enjoy watching Martin Clunes enjoying himself in the novel role of a curmudgeon, but, really. A plot where a man in the village starts to grow a cracking pair of tits? Tsk.

Caitlin Moran, The Times, 3rd September 2004