Seven Seasons in the Bag, and what happened next to ‘Doc Martin.’
Seven seasons in, it wasn't a given that megapopular British comedy Doc Martin would continue, leaving fans uncertain, as they had been since each installment of Doc Martin was rumored to be its last since sometime around Season 5. Since the show only filmed every other year, there was plenty of time for fans to fill talking and/or worrying about its future. Happily viewers were rewarded with Season 8 although no official announcement came from the folks at ITV, the UK network that produces the show. It was Current, the media outlet that covers public and nonprofit media in the US, that announced the good news about another season.
Current interviewed Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwhite about the US premiere of Season 7, and she implied there was definitely still life in the series beyond its current season.
“There are lots of stories we want to explore, and we want to do them well,” she said. “I think we’ll know when it’s time to end the show.”
While that’s a far cry from directly saying Yes we’re making Season 8, it’s pretty close, and certainly more direct than that time we learned that Season 7 was happening via a comment star Martin Clunes made during an interview with The Telegraph.
Braithwaite said each season is created so that it could be the last. “We never know when we finish if we will make another” she said. “So we finish deliberately so we could leave it right there.”
Season 6 was apparently the exception to this rule, because viewers were left with an emotional cliffhanger following Louisa’s decision to take an indefinite trip to Spain with her infant son. (So maybe that should have been our first clue the show was coming back?)
Braithwhite’s full interview in Current is well worth a read, and offers several interesting character insights and behind-the-scenes filming tidbits. (But it DOES have a few mild Season 7 spoilers, if you haven't caught up yet.)
Since this piece was originally published, Doc Martin went on to complete ten seasons! You can stream Seasons 1 – 4 on Hulu, Disney, HBO Max; Seasons 1 – 6 on Awesome, Pluto TV, Tubi, and the Roku Channel; Seasons 1 – 10 are streaming on Acorn TV; and Seasons 6 – 10 are available with PBS Passport.
