Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2015 / January 2016 | Page 13

INTERVIEW

The

Minghella

Phenomenon

Jackie McCarrick talks to screenwriter
Dominic Minghella about life, work – and
being part of the famous Island family

H

e’s best known as the creator of
one of TV’s best-loved comedydrama characters, Doc Martin,
but screenwriter Dominic Minghella
admits that he still finds it hard to shake
off a deep-seated feeling of being the
“youngest and least successful” member
of a large and extraordinarily talented
family.
In fact, as the last-born of Edward and
Gloria Minghella’s five children, Dominic,
49, recalls feeling “a little lost and without
a role” in the busy and boisterous family
that was lit up by the strong female
energies of his late mother Gloria, and
sisters Gioia, Edana and Loretta.
“My mum and sisters were all very
strong characters, so it was easy for me to
get lost and feel insignificant among all
the activity” he recalls.
With his parents hard at work building
their successful ice cream business in
Ryde, the young Dominic experienced
what he jokily describes as a ‘feral’
childhood, often being looked after by his
older siblings.
The up-side was that it gave him a great
deal of freedom – and in fact, one of the
favourite family stories is of him being

Picture by Julian Winslow

spotted by his sister, furiously pedalling
his bike along Ryde seafront.
“Oh, he’ll be back,” said his mother.
The punch line to that tale is that
Dominic was aged just two and a half at
the time!
“I think there are some benefits to being
the youngest, though” he says. “I had

less parental pressure, and they were less
anxious about me, because the others
had paved the way”.
He also says he felt “proud to be part of
something that was a phenomenon” –
and on the Isle of Wight, the Minghella
family was - and certainly continues to be
– a real phenomenon.
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