Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2015 / January 2016 | Page 29
INTERVIEW
Clunes
country
Twenty years on from the testosterone-fuelled
idiocy which filled his London flat in Men
Behaving Badly, actor Martin Clunes, much
like his eponymous Doc Martin character, has
swapped the city for the pleasures of rural life
K
nown best for his portrayal of
Doc Martin’s irritable Dr Martin
Ellingham, who abruptly leaves
his London practice to become a general
practitioner in the sleepy fishing village
of Portwenn, Martin Clunes, at first look,
shares more than just his name with the
good doctor.
But while the idiosyncratic focus of the
popular comedy drama settled rather
awkwardly into Cornish village life,
Clunes himself feels very much at home
in the rural south-west.
Now 53-years-old, Clunes grew up in
London, attending boarding school for
much of his childhood. Deciding to up
sticks to the Devon countryside years
ago with his second wife, producer
Philippa Braithwaite, and their young
daughter Emily, the family swapped the
stresses of the capital for the West Dorset
countryside and never looked back. Now
the owner of a farm, with over 130 acres
of his own land, you’d be forgiven for
thinking that while Clunes may enjoy the
rural life, juggling filming, farm work, a
family and with over 30 horses to tend to,
it must be hard work.
His days may be busier than ever, but
Clunes protests that he’s lost the stresses
associated with city life; rather, country
life has changed him. “Totally,” he smiles.
And a world away from his Men Behaving
in the
Badly character, who would refuse to
commit to anyone or anything beyond
a couple pints down the pub, it’s easy to
imagine the actor rolling up his sleeves
and getting his hands dirty. “Living on a
farm is totally engaging and completely
absorbing,” he says. “There are animals
everywhere. It just defines who we are.”
An enduring small screen success story
and prolific presenter, Clunes has firmly
laid down roots. Filming Doc Martin in
Cornwall, his commute from Devon and
back again is arguably longer than a trip
on the Tube, but still gives him time to
feed the horses, dogs and the assortment
of four-legged friends he shares his land
with.
That said, the actor does admit that long
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