Martin Clunes’s grumpy medic Doc Martin has been on our screens since 2004, but ITV has announced that the upcoming 10th season will be the show’s last.
It had previously been reported that season 9 would see the series come to an end, with fans only getting more worried after the Doc revealed he had quit the medical profession at the end of the finale.
However, the show was officially recommissioned back in 2020, with ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill saying at the time: “I just want to thank Martin and Philippa and everyone involved in Doc Martin, because it’s a brilliant, beautifully made series that has delighted audiences for many years.
“I am pleased that we are making season 10, and sad this will be the last, but respect their decision to bring it to a close.”
We still have all of season 10 and a Christmas special finale to come, but why is the show coming to an end now? Read on for everything you need to know.
Why won’t there be a Doc Martin season 11?
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It seems that the main reason the series is coming to an end, based on comments made by star Clunes, is simply because the story has run its course.
Clunes said in 2020, while speaking on Loose Women: “All good things have to come to an end. And I’m sure there are lots of people who aren’t fans of the show who think it’s terribly repetitive anyway, but we’re at huge pains not to repeat ourselves. I just think we’ve sort of done everything. I mean, it would be so great to just sort of carry on, but I don’t think we can keep it as good.”
As the show is semi-procedural, with new medical cases and conditions each week, it’s perhaps no surprise that after almost 80 episodes, fears of repetition could creep in.
However, Clunes added that “we’ve got such a lovely cast, and it’s been 16 years. We all sort of bump into each other’s children every two years and watch them growing up and flourishing.”
More recently, in January 2022, Clunes said on Lorraine: “I mean it is sad, but it’s not really. It’s the right time. I think everyone will probably appreciate it is time to finish. But it feels like a really good time to finish.”
Fans already mourning the loss of the series should take heart in the knowledge that Clunes seems pleased with the show’s ending. Last week, he said on Good Morning Britain that the season “really builds to a terribly dramatic conclusion, really dramatic. Then the series finishes and then a few weeks later we have our Christmas episode.”
What have the rest of the cast said about the show’s ending?
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Caroline Catz, who plays Martin’s wife Louisa, recently said: “The final readthrough was quite emotional. It was the first time we had all been together in one room, rather than over Zoom. There has not been any personal readthroughs for so long. I am finding it really hard to say goodbye to it, and to really absorb how many years it has actually been.”
Meanwhile, Jessica Ransom, who plays Morwenna, said ahead of filming her final scenes: “I am going to be an absolute mess. I don’t really know – it is so weird, you think it is just a job, it is just ending, the people are still here and the place is still here.
“But I got sad when I did my last scenes in previous series I suppose because we haven’t necessarily known that it was coming back. But it does feel very different this time, it feels very final, so it’s going to be a tough day.”
She also revealed that “the last scene is all of us together”. Get the tissues ready…
Doc Martin is available to stream on BritBox and season 10 arrives on Wednesday 7th September – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.
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