Doc Martin: Six Surly Seasons + The Movies

BREAKING NEWS:Doc Martin has been renewed for Season Eight, set to air in 2017.For more information, read my comment dated January 20, 2016.---------------------------------------------------------[hint: for ease of navigation, read the review though to the end, then come back and click on the links.]If you have not already invested in the earlier "Doc Martin" DVDs, the most economical way to acquire the series is to buy this new Season 1-6 box.It also includes the two made-for-TV "Martin Bamford" movies (see below).From the start, Doc Martin has had English SDH subtitles and is presented in the 16:9 widescreen mode.Season Seven is NOT in this box.You have to buy it separately: Doc Martin, Series 7 [Blu-ray]Season Seven is the first time the series will be released on both Blu-Ray and DVD.-- there was also a Season 1-5 box: Doc Martin Special Collection: Series 1-5 plus the Moviesbut you would then need Season Six (Doc Martin Series 6) in addition to Season Seven.Both the Season 1-6 box and the Season 1-5 box also include the two made-for-TV "Martin Bamford" movies.The Season 1-6 box is packaged in two multi-disc DVD cases which slide into into an attractive cardboard slipcase.The Season 1-5 box had six DVD cases (one for each season and the movies).I haven't heard of any plans to go back and re-issue the first six Seasons on Blu-Ray,---------------------------------------------------------SERIES OVERVIEW:Mr. Martin Ellingham (played by Martin Clunes) was a brilliant and prestigious surgeon in London,who developed an unexplained aversion to the sight of blood ("Hemophobia").Unable to function, he retired to his boyhood home of Portwennn,where he becomes Dr. Martin Ellingham, the brilliant General Practitioner.No longer prestigious - local teens call him "Tosser"His receptionist is charged with drawing blood from patients.TRIVIA:Portwenn is portrayed by the picturesque seaside village of Port Isaac (population 721) in Cornwall, in the extreme southwest of Britain.Impossibly beautiful real estate.Port Isaac is nine miles down the coast from Tintagel, home of Tintagel Castle, legendary birthplace of King Arthur.*"Mister" = British surgeons are medical doctors, but in hospital they are addressed as "Mister" not "Doctor"(when Doc Martin visits his old hospital in Season One, a former colleague addresses him as "Mr. Ellingham" - before correcting himself).This is a holdover from the Nineteenth Century:Doctors diagnosed the patient's problem, then turned the poor fellow over to the Surgeon for treatment (usually amputation).Surgeons were skilled craftsmen.The faster they worked, the greater likelihood the patient would survive the operation.Irony - In the Twentieth Century, surgery became the prestigious specialty."Tosser" = British slang. A male who masturbates: An objectionable male.Synonymous with "wanker""Going Bodmin" is a phrase sometimes encountered on the show.Bodmin (population 15,000) is a town thirteen miles south of Port Isaac.Home to the 200 year-old Bodmin County Lunatic Asylum."Going Bodmin" means you are mentally ill.Bodmin is also home to Bodmin Prison.EARLY YEARS: DR. MARTIN BAMFORDMartin Clunes originally played a character named "Dr Martin Bamford" in three prequels to the TV series.- 2000: "Saving Grace" = Saving Grace- 2001: "Doc Martin" (TV movie) and- 2003: "Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie" (TV movie) = DOC MARTIN: THE MOVIESThe two TV movies (but not "Saving Grace") are also included in the Season 1-5 box and the Season 1-6 box.Doc Martin is a minor character in "Saving Grace" (starring Brenda Blethyn and Craig Ferguson), but he is the lead character in the two TV movies.Dr. Martin Bamford is a London obstetrician who discovers that his wife has been unfaithful.Bitter and depressed, he moves to Port Isaac, a small seacoast town in Cornwall which he remembers from his childhood.Filmed in Port Isaac, not yet known as "Portwenn".The setting is the same, but the supporting cast is different (including a different love interest).Martin Bamford is not Martin Ellingham.He drinks and smokes (tobacco and otherwise), and has no problem getting his hands dirty by helping out on a local fishing boat.SERIES 1-7: DR. MARTIN ELLINGHAM:Dr. Bamford was not really going anywhere, so writer Dominic Minghella was called in to rethink the series' premise, and to create a new cast of supporting characters.The first thing he did was change the doctor's name from Dr. Martin Bamford to Dr. Martin Ellingham."Ellingham" is an anagram of "Minghella".The revised series debuted in 2004 - New seasons have appeared at approximately two year intervals.If you are new to Doc Martin, by all means start with Season One and watch the series in chronological order.The plot line that begins with the first episode is still developing.Save the "Dr. Martin Bamford" movies for last. Though technically "prequels", they add nothing to the TV series.2004 was also the year that "House" debuted on American television.Doctors Gregory House and Martin Ellingham have a lot in common:Brilliant physicians but dysfunctional human beings (House is also a secret Brit).Each show is a combination of Medical Detective Story and comedy."House" is much darker comedy - "Doc Martin" can sometimes seem a bit silly.My two favorite TV shows of the 21st Century.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------* CAMELOT CONNECTIONTintagel Castle (nine miles north of Port Isaac) is the birthplace of the legend of King Arthur.Uther Pendragon, King of Britain, falls in love with Igraine, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.Gorlois believes his wife is safely protected within the walls of Tintagel Castle.Under a spell from the wizard Merlin, Uther Pendragon assumes the appearance of Gorlois in order to gain entry.Igraine believes him to be her husband, and "in that night was the most famous of men, Arthur, conceived."(Geoffrey of Monmouth, 'Historia Regum Britanniae', written in 1136)Prior to Doc Martin, Tintagel Castle was the most popular tourist attraction in Cornwall.Photo 1 = Port IsaacPhoto 2 = Tintagel CastlePhoto 3 = Convenient footpath connecting the two (pay no attention to the broken footbridge)The stretch of coast from Port Isaac to Tintagel is pretty isolated real estate.The Port Isaac railway station closed in 1966.Doc Martin is filmed in the summer, when the weather in Cornwall is almost Mediterranean.Cornwall has the mildest and sunniest climate in the United Kingdom, due to its southerly latitude and the influence of the Gulf Stream.Penzance, 55 miles southwest of Port Isaac, is the most popular seaside resort in Cornwall (thanks to Gilbert & Sullivan).Photo 8 is a satellite photo of the Port Isaac region.It shows a five mile stretch of coastline (Tintagel is a further four miles up the coast)The inlet on the left is Port Isaac.The next inlet is Port Gaverne, practically a suburb of Port Isaac.Too shallow for fishing boats - Port Gaverne is basically a tourist beach.P.S. I have a hopeless crush on Caroline Catz, the actress who plays Doc Martin's love interest Louisa Glasson.Surprisingly, she has also had a parallel career in law enforcement:In 2004, the year Doc Martin debuted, she was Detective Inspector Kate Ashurst in Murder in Suburbia Complete Collection.This was a fairly lightweight (but enjoyable) police series.In 2012, she joined the cast of DCI Banks, where she plays Detective Inspector Helen Morton, a much darker character:DCI Banks: Season 2DCI Banks: Season Three *DCI Banks: Season Four ** Before ordering DCI Banks Seasons 3 and 4, read my reviews of each: "BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING - DIFFERENT VERSIONS ARE ON AMAZON"Otherwise you might order the wrong DVDs.