Martin:<\/strong> The end of the last series was massive \u2013 so dramatic, so emotional \u2013 and then it was fine. So the Christmas episode is really lovely, really cosy, perfect for Christmas Day. That\u2019s if we don\u2019t get bumped for something else\u2026<\/p>\n What will your Christmas Day look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n A party. Everybody comes to us for Christmas and we have a big party. We\u2019ll have the whole extended family in the house, about 15 people. It\u2019s fantastic, we\u2019ve always taken it seriously.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t share Dr Martin Ellingham\u2019s less enthusiastic view of having fun with people?<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t. We\u2019re a big family and we do a lot together. I have some amazing nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters-in-law. We go on holidays together, and I find that lovely. I love being with them.<\/p>\n Even when they\u2019ve had slightly too much to drink and they\u2019re in your house?<\/strong><\/p>\n Even better! My wife Philippa\u2019s brother Christopher is a fantastic quizmaster and we generally have a bit of a quiz and get hysterical over very little. It\u2019s good fun. There are loads of dogs as well \u2013 everyone\u2019s got a dog.<\/p>\n Dogs plus horses. That\u2019s an awful lot of barking and neighing\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, and we always give everyone [on the farm] Christmas off, so it\u2019s hard work as well. It\u2019s knackering, especially when we had sheep. Bloody hell, lambing.<\/p>\n Festive lambing isn\u2019t much fun, then?<\/strong><\/p>\n Lambing is a pain in the arse. I\u2019ve sold the flock. We did it for about five or six years, but it just wasn\u2019t washing its face. The lambing and the lambs are the only good bit about sheep farming, because you only wade in when they\u2019re in trouble. Holding the ewe steady when you\u2019re trying to get to the lambs. Listening to the posh lady who used to run around with the helicopter, Anneka Rice, covering for someone at 2am on the radio, with all this bleating going on to the rumble of the generator. Special times.<\/p> What will you be carving this Christmas?<\/strong><\/p>\n Turkey. I had a calf called Noel that I was fattening up, but he didn\u2019t quite come right. We renamed him Jesus and thought we might have him at Easter.<\/p>\n Will it be a temperate meal for the Clunes clan, or lashings of booze with the turkey?<\/strong><\/p>\n You know those giant bottles of red wine? One of those each. We do alcohol.<\/p>\n What were Christmases like for you as a boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n They were OK. My father died when I was eight, so I remember they were a little bit grim when I was in my mid-teens, because it was a bit of a thin family \u2013 the three of us, then my sister was off with friends. But there were presents, so that made up for it. I\u2019m a big fan of my family now, quite possibly because of that. It\u2019s the most important thing to me.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in the Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Doc Martin\u2019s Christmas special airs Christmas Day on ITV at 9:05pm.\u00a0<\/strong>Looking for something to watch? Visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n By Michael Hodges Published: Sunday, 25 December 2022 at 12:00 am For Martin Clunes, Christmas is very much down on the farm \u2013 specifically the farm he and his wife Philippa work and live on in the hills outside Beaminster in Dorset. There, the 61-year-old Doc Martin star will entertain 15 guests, plus horses, dogs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27798,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas.jpg",1920,1280,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/martin-clunes-on-doc-martin-christmas-special-and-his-family-christmas.jpg",1920,1280,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Hodges Published: Sunday, 25 December 2022 at 12:00 am For Martin Clunes, Christmas is very much down on the farm \u2013 specifically the farm he and his wife Philippa work and live on in the hills outside Beaminster in Dorset. There, the 61-year-old Doc Martin star will entertain 15 guests, plus horses, dogs,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/doc-martin-christmas-special-2022-5c0eb8d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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