Revisiting Doc Martin's global adaptations – remakes from Spain to Russia

When Doc Martin first aired on ITV in 2004, few could have predicted its global staying power. By 2017, the drama was not only averaging millions of viewers in the UK but had also inspired international remakes from Spain to Russia – proof that Martin Clunes's gruff GP had struck a universal chord.

Eight years on, that reach is expanding once again. Fox has unveiled the first trailer for Best Medicine, a new US adaptation starring The Good Wife’s Josh Charles as Dr Martin Best – a brilliant but socially awkward surgeon who swaps Boston for a small East Coast fishing village.

Billed as a "charmingly complicated one-hour comedy", Best Medicine features a cast including Abigail Spencer, Annie Potts, and Josh Segarra, with Clunes himself making a cameo as Dr Best’s father.

The series will premiere in January 2026, two decades after the original show first introduced audiences to the prickly doctor whose bedside manner was as sharp as his medical skills.

Below, revisit our 2017 look at Doc Martin’s extraordinary worldwide success – and the devoted fans who helped turn a sleepy Cornish village into a global TV landmark.

The below was first published in Radio Times magazine in September 2017.

The ITV drama is enduringly popular in the UK, averaging 9 million viewers per episode since it started in 2004 — but its global reach is staggering.

It is screened in more than a dozen countries, including the USA, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Uruguay. It is also remade with an entirely different cast in half a dozen more, from Russia to Spain.

The Spanish Doc Martin is reborn as Doctor Mateo and set in Lastres, a fishing village on the north coast of Spain, cleverly renamed San Martin del Sella for the drama.

For a long time, there was even serious talk of Marta Kauffman, the co-creator of Friends, remaking Doc Martin in America.

"She was very keen," says Mark Crowdy, the show’s executive producer. "But they couldn’t find a way of making it commercially viable because we’ve already sold the format around the world. When Doc Martin first aired in the US, its reach was just 7 per cent. But as its popularity has grown, it’s now up to 97 per cent. Absolutely astonishing."

Back home in Cornwall, fans of the show travel in droves to Port Isaac to watch Doc Martin being filmed. The online community – there is even a fan club in Mumbai – share tips on the best places to eat, drink and sleep, alongside details of the filming schedule.

When I visit, four American women outside a shop are leaning breathlessly over a bowl of £3 fridge magnets displaying Martin Clunes as Doc Martin in a grey suit and wearing a disinterested expression. They ignore the topless postcards of Aidan Turner in Poldark, their attention focused entirely on Doc Martin memorabilia – postcards of the cast, a clock, clotted cream, shortbread biscuits and an apron with the Doc scowling, his baby dangling in a sling from his chest.

Will, who works in the shop, says the perennial bestsellers are mugs adorned with Doc Martin’s face.

The American women aren’t simply passing through – they are self-proclaimed "Clunatics". Ask why they love the irascible doctor so much and they simply say: "He’s so honest! So direct!"

Helen Haig and her son Chris travel nearly two hours from Taunton in Somerset to watch filming. They once came for a week and saw no filming at all. "We didn’t mind," Helen says. "It’s just a bonus if they are filming and we can soak up the atmosphere. Doc Martin is so gentle and funny compared with some of the stuff you see on TV. And Martin Clunes is a wonderful man."

For Doc Martin’s legions of fans, knowing that the doctor’s surname, Ellingham, is an anagram of the surname of series creator Dominic Minghella is an interesting detail, but incidental. The main appeal lies in feeling they are connected in some way to the show and its star.

Almost every day, they send Clunes chocolate or drawings of him with his dogs. They make Doc Martin bobbleheads and Lego figures. They can’t get enough of the doctor who has no filter — who says what everyone else would love to say.

What will they do if the show bows out at the end of its ninth series in 2019? The Clunatics, their bags stuffed with mugs and magnets, shrug. "Watch it again from the start, of course."

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