Characters / Doc Martin

Dr. Martin Ellingham

Played by Martin Clunes

Tropes:

• Afraid of Blood: Sets up the whole series, as his aversion to blood halts his high-flying medical career in its tracks and causes him to become a GP in a small rural village. Despite early efforts to keep a lid on his secret, an upstart doctor from his old hospital blabs about it all over Portwenn.
• Always on Duty: When we are first introduced to Martin, he is seen intrusively peering into a fellow passenger's face (Louisa) on a plane, checking for an eye disorder. He continues to offer unsolicited diagnoses, no matter how inappropriate the situation is, even if he faces stiff punishment for doing so. (Commenting on Louisa's breath in the middle of a cab ride gets him dumped on the outskirts of town.)
• British Stuffiness: Martin is almost a caricature of the emotionally repressed Brit. From his stiff as a board posture, to his constant inability to handle emotions (well, positive emotions anyway; he has a better handle on the negative ones).
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Martin is abrasive and arrogant, and generally unsociable. He has also developed a blood phobia, which caused him to have to give up his prestigious surgical practice and become the best damned GP (general practitioner) the village of Portwenn ever had.
• The Danza: He's called Martin, and so is the actor who plays him.
• Determinator: Martin may not have any bedside manners, but he will stop at nothing to try and help those in need of medical care, including walking through a snowstorm while suffering hypothermia to reach an injured man's house.
• Dr. Jerk: His defining character trait. He's a brilliant doctor, but he's also a sour, pompous and miserable git almost entirely lacking in charm and bedside manner.
  "It was easy to find you, I just followed the trail of outraged people."
  • In Series 3, he very briefly tries on a newer, jocular attitude to impress Louisa. Of course this only manages to creep people out even further, and the patients continue to disregard his advice anyway. He can't win.
  • There's a minor Running Gag that Martin will accurately treat/diagnose people on the fly, but repeatedly fails to remember what their name was, even when he actually bothered to ask for it!
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first few episodes, Martin is still rude, but he's much more talkative and tries to repair some of the damage he does with his tactlessness. In the pilot, for instance, he secretly gets a husband, his unfaithful wife, and the lover all in the same room to try and make up.
• Fish out of Water: Not so much these days, since he's been living there a while by now.
• Hidden Depths: Martin used to write Edith poetry.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While the Doc has a habit of being extraordinarily rude to people, it's clear that he does care about their well-being, but is frustrated by the fact that they never follow directions. He also clearly loves his Aunts, Louisa, and even Pauline. This is most obviously expressed in the episode where he and Louisa become engaged, as he tells off Pauline's mum for accusing Pauline of being a criminal when really she just has a gambling addiction, and where he tells Louisa that he can't bear to live without her.
• Lack of Empathy: Doc Martin has no bedside manner and is probably on the autistic spectrum. He routinely tells people about their illness in the most abrasive way possible.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • Martin and his suits would make Barney Stinson proud. He changes into a new suit for his wedding (with the classic "wardrobe full of copies of the same outfit" gag), but nobody can tell the difference.
  • Lampshaded in Series 6 when Martin asks if Louisa has seen his blue tie, to which she replies that all his ties are blue. He counters with the fact that he has a few red ones.
• Misery Builds Character: Martin was brought up by emotionally distant and borderline abusive parents who resented having a child at all.
  Martin: I was locked in the cupboard under the stairs as a child, and it never did me any harm.
• Moment Killer: Martin manages to muck up the moment with Louisa repeatedly.
• No Social Skills: This exchange is a pretty clear demonstration of the problem:
  Louisa: It's no good pretending to be nice, Martin, you've got to want to!
  [Beat]
  Martin: WHY?!
• No Sympathy: There have been numerous occasions when Martin has had some appointment or official meeting that he didn't make because he was dealing with a medical emergency. This does not stop people from complaining that he wasted their time. Of course, more often than not, something happens to the patient which brings Martin to assist them anyway.
• Not So Stoic: Martin after hearing the news about Joan's death. Despite outwardly remaining his typical aloof self, as he walks around her empty house, his eyes betray how utterly heartbroken he is.
• Only Sane Man: Martin likes to paint himself as one of these, however Joan and her replacement Ruth have far better claims on this (albeit in different ways).
• Parental Abandonment: Martin's parents took every opportunity to not have to raise him, sending him to boarding school at age six and having him spend summers with Aunt Joan (until his father decided that Joan was too immoral).
• Phrase Catcher: Martin has "Tosser!"^note A British slang term, which in the definition used aptly when referring to Martin on the show, refers to someone (usually male) that behaves in a selfish and inconsiderate manner; although it alternatively means a person who is overly fond of masturbating, serving as a comparatively less vulgar alternative of "wanker".
• Poor Communication Kills: Martin is horrible at communication. Most of the time, he just barks orders without bothering to explain himself. For example, in series 6, when he discovers that Louisa has an abnormality in her brain that could kill her if it ruptures, when he calls her to warn her about it, he just tells her not to get on the plane without telling her why. Naturally, she assumes its because he doesn't want her to leave and hangs up, forcing him to race to the airport (he also doesn't bother to call the airport and try to warn them).
• Sarcasm-Blind: Martin occasionally. It's unclear whether he does it deliberately to dismiss people he finds troublesome or that he simply doesn't bother to listen and think about what they've said enough to realize the sarcasm.
  Mother: I can't keep him home, I've got to work!
  Martin: Well, get your husband to help.
  Mother: Sure, if I mention impetigo (the skin infection her son has) he'll ditch his girlfriend straight away, drive overnight from Glasgow and give our marriage one more try.
  Martin: Good.
• Supreme Chef: Martin might be uptight, a stick-in-the-mud, and unexpressive in every other aspect of his life, but his gastronomic creations show a singular passion and creativity. Notable that even during his relationship with Louisa he still insisted on doing the cooking for both of them.
• Surrounded by Idiots: One look at the locals, you can understand why Ellingham is so sarcastic and misanthropic.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Martin, in spades.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Martin. Nobody in Britain spews more than this man.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Blood for Martin.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Martin's stock response (along with calling the patient an idiot) to the people of Portwenn's often ridiculous attempts at self-medication or other antics.
  • A specific example comes when Martin successfully removes Eleanor's hernia in the consulting room and Morwenna (acting as his assistant) suggests she could close up the incision if he shows her how.

Louisa Ellingham (née Glasson)

Played by Caroline Catz

Tropes:

• Hypocrite: Louisa is often quick to antagonise and start an argument with Martin for things he does that she doesn’t like, however she usually refuses to admit her mistakes or when she is in the wrong if Martin or someone else calls her out because of her Never My Fault attitude.
• Parental Abandonment: Louisa's mother walked out on the family when she was ten and she became estranged from her gambling-addict father when she was an adult. Her father eventually becomes a criminal, causing a second estrangement. Her mother returned to become a cast member in season 5 and then they split again.
• Silent Snarker: Louisa manages an eyeroll at Martin's antics while having brain surgery.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:Louisa in season 7. After returning to Portwenn and finding out that Martin has started seeing a psychiatrist to try and salvage their relationship, she starts going with him but continually pins all the blame on him and refuses to admit any wrongdoing.

Bert Large

Played by Ian McNeice

Tropes:

• Big Fun: He's a rather large man, and definitely a jolly figure.
• Determinator: Regardless of how many failures and setbacks he goes through (mainly self-inflicted), he never stops trying to strike success. Both Al and Ruth say "you never give up, do you?" in the finale, although in markedly different tones of voice.
• Fat and Skinny: The "fat" to Al's "skinny". Bert is a short Fat Idiot and his son Al is the sensible Straight Man.
• Hillbilly Moonshiner: After losing his restaurant in the final series, Bert builds a still in an old camper to make whiskey. However, his product actually turns out to be of salable quality, and Ruth helps him obtain a distillers' license.
• Meaningful Name: He's certainly a large man.
• Never Bareheaded: Bert's never without his ratty watch cap.

Al Large

Played by Joe Absolom

Tropes:

• Fat and Skinny: The "skinny" to Bert's "fat". Al is the sensible Straight Man and his father Bert is a short Fat Idiot.
• Only Sane Man: Al is often shown as this, especially when in the presence of his father.

Sally Tishell

Played by Selina Cadell

Tropes:

• Sanity Slippage: Her crush on Martin went from "she's an odd one", to "what're those pills she's taking?", to Stalker Shrine, and finally a full blown psychotic break, which was a bad interaction between two drugs she was taking.
• Stalker Shrine: After developing an obsession on Martin due to a medication issue, Mrs. Tishell constructs one of these in season 5 finale. She tears it down upon her return to Portwenn.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Mrs. Tishell is rarely called otherwise.

PC Joe Penhale

Played by John Marquez

Tropes:

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Heavier on the "moron" than the "badass" admittedly, but he came across as a very professional and scary copper when he dealt with the evil loan sharks threatening Bert. And when his estranged wife shows up apparently unaware that they've been divorced for four years, he's clearly still desperately in love with her, but the first thing he does is ask her the date, confirming that she's not well.
• Flanderization: He wasn't terribly competent to begin with, but as the series has gone on he seems to keep getting worse and worse at his job, to the point that, by Series 6, he no longer seems to have the slightest idea what proper police procedure is.
• Game-Breaking Injury: It's implied that he used to be a city cop (and/or a better cop) before being kicked in the head by a horse on a call. It messed him up quite badly, resulting in narcolepsy, agoraphobia, and mood swings that ruined his marriage.
• The Load: Nearly every time PC Penhale gets involved in a situation, he's either useless or actively exacerbates it.
• Police Are Useless: PC Penhale is hopelessly bad at his job. In the series finale, someone has to correct him about the missing persons law being updated to remove the "24 hours" requirement. Lampshaded by Ruth;
  Ruth: Is he really a policeman... or just pretending to be one?
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For PC Mylow.

Ruth Ellingham

Played by Eileen Atkins

Tropes:

• Little Old Lady Investigates: Unlike Martin, who barely even understands his fellow man, Ruth was a criminal psychologist and can do some more interesting things in this regard. Notable examples include her attempting (yet failing due to Louisa) in informing Martin how to act toward Mrs. Tishell when she kidnaps his and Louisa's baby, when she assists Martin with a delusional lady who believes her son's been poisoning her, and when Martin goes missing and she tracks him down with Al.

Morwenna Large (née Newcross)

Played by Jessica Ransom

Tropes:

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: To an extent, particularly in the Series 6 finale when Bert's MacGyvering causes a woman to suffer a heart-stopping electric shock. On phone advice from Martin (who's dealing with his own serious problem at the time^note Louisa has a brain malformation that only Martin has spotted and is about to fly to Spain, which would cause a potentially fatal bleed.) she performs CPR on the patient while Al fetches a defibrillator. In Series 7 she helps a man having a stroke while they're stranded in a remote place and she only has garbled radio instructions.
• Motor Mouth: Becomes this after taking some "energy pills" that her grandfather had given her, which were actually 70-year-old methamphetamines from his WWII ration kit.
• Sassy Secretary: Entirely averted; she is just trying to keep her job throughout Series 5, though after receiving help from a tourist, she grows more of a backbone.
• Straw Feminist: Morwenna gets shades of the trope after she starts reading a self-help book that an American tourist (played by Sigourney Weaver) gave her.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Very much one for Pauline.

Joan Norton

Played by Stephanie Cole

Tropes:

• Killed Off for Real: Dies of a heart attack offscreen during the hiatus between seasons 4 and 5.

PC Mark Mylow

Played by Stewart Wright

Tropes:

• The Bus Came Back: He returned for a guest spot in Series 9, as did Penhale's ex-fiancee Janice.
• Police Are Useless: Averted; PC Mylow is socially awkward but still fairly competent.
• Teeny Weenie: Played for Drama. Martin discovers that PC Mylow has an abnormally small penis and testicles, then has him tested, which reveals he's got a condition that means he's infertile. Then Mylow's girlfriend tells him she's pregnant. Mylow is understandably quite upset.

Elaine Dunham

Played by Lucy Punch

Tropes:

• Hate Sink: She was unprofessional, incompetent, entitled, completely obnoxious and on top of that she didn’t even bother to let Martin know she had resigned from her job as his receptionist and buggered off to Pompeii, which he only found out from her cousin Pauline.
• Put on the Bus: Unsurprisingly the character only lasted the first season and was promptly written out of the show and replaced by her far more competent cousin.
• Sassy Secretary

Pauline Lamb

Played by Katherine Parkinson

Tropes:

• Sassy Secretary: Mostly averted, though she really "wants" to be one.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Originally she was one for Elaine, though since Pauline runs for three seasons she has a rather well developed, unique character