Wait, what?
Craig Ferguson created Doc Martin?
That can’t be right. That’s like one of those facts that seems incongruous, if not totally bogus. You know, like the one about Mrs Brown’s Boys starting life as a novel*, then being turned into a movie starring Anjelica Houston. Wait, what?
No, focus.
Bing Hitler created Doc Martin.
Bing Hitler.
So, let’s unpack this a bit.
Officially Doc Martin was created by Dominic Minghella. Oh right, so I’ve been lying to you?
No.
It’s based on the character of Martin Bamford from the 2000 movie Saving Grace, which was written by Craig Ferguson and Mark Crowdy.
As you can see Clunes is right in the thick of the plot, and his character was used for two made for TV prequel movies, made by Sky. Doc Martin, and Doc Martin And The Legend Of The Cloutie focused on how the character ended up in Cornwall, and were both written by Simon Mayle.
Thus, on the ITV series of Doc Martin, there is a credit that reads ‘based on characters created for the film “Saving Grace” created by Craig Ferguson and Mark Crowdy‘.
*it actually began life as Mrs. Browne’s Boys, a radio play. The film was called Agnes Browne.