I don’t know when (or, frankly, why) they filmed this extra show, which is billed as the last ever episode of Doc Martin, but it’s landed on our screens just at a time when the NHS is in a state of near collapse.
To be fair to them, the producers wouldn’t have known about the forthcoming strikes, but the fact remains that in Dr Martin Ellingham’s idyllic Cornwall patch of “Portwenn”, no one ever gets all that sick, to the point of absurdity. I’m no expert on health outcomes in the South West, but this particular corner of the region has an unusually high incidence of comically mild ailments, and somehow Covid passed it by entirely.
