Relive the magic of ITV’s best loved drama series starring Martin ClunesDoc Martin arrives in the picture postcard fishing village of Portwenn, Cornwall. Once a high-flying London surgeon, his suddenly developed blood phobia means he has to take a job in a local practice.But while the Doc’s medical skills are second to none, his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. He immediately starts infuriating the locals, none more so than school teacher Louisa G...

Meet the ultimate Scrooge...The festive season in the small Cornish village of Portwenn is going to be anything but easy for curmudgeonly Doc Martin. His idea of a perfect Christmas Day is to remain steadfastly alone and catch up with back issues of The Lancet.However, Portwenn is fighting off the cold and frost with a period of determined revelry before it heads into its deep winter sleep, and his patients are even more exasperating than usual. No...

What is it that makes humans engage with a dramatic narrative? Is it linked to our primitive selves, contained within our instinctive experience?This innovative text argues that understanding how and why our human instincts are brought into play as we watch screen drama is the key to writing it. Analysing four powerful instincts – willpower, logic, morality and emotion – Sam North explores how they determine our level of involvement in their drama, and how screenwriters can use the...

Doc Martin’s idea of a perfect Christmas Day is to remain steadfastly alone and catch up with back issues of The Lancet. However, Portwenn is fighting off the cold and frost with a period of determined revelry before it heads into its deep winter sleep, and his patients are even more exasperating than usual. It will take all of Doc Martin's willpower to fend off the attentions of the Christmas spirit…

Doc Martin arrives in the picture postcard fishing village of Portwenn, Cornwall. Once a high-flying London surgeon, his suddenly developed blood phobia means he has to take a job in a local practice.But while the Doc's medical skills are second to none, his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. He immediately starts infuriating the locals, none more so than school teacher Louisa Glasson...

It's 1979: Dallas is enthralling the nation on TV, Mrs Thatcher has just become prime minister, Abba is top of the pops, and in the small Yorkshire village of Ragley-on-the-Forest, Jack Sheffield returns for his third year as headmaster of the village school.Jack and his staff struggle to keep a semblance of normality throughout the turbulence of the school terms, as once again the official School Log fails to record what is really going on beneath the seemingly quiet routine. Ruby...

It's 1978, and Jack Sheffield begins his second year as headmaster of a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. There are three letters on his desk - one makes him smile, one makes him sad and one is destined to change his life forever. This is from nine-year-old Sebastian, suffering from leukaemia in the local hospital, who writes a heartbreaking letter addressed to 'Mister Teacher'. Jack tries to help, and so begins a journey through the seasons of Yorkshire life in which the sc...

It's 1980: recession and unemployment have hit Britain, a royal wedding is on the way, and the whole country is wondering Who Shot JR?As Jack returns for his fourth year at Ragley-on-the Forest School, there's a definite chill in the air. Village schools are being closed down all over the place - will his be one of them?As school life continues - Vera, the school secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled electric typewriter, Ruby celebrates ten years as the school cleaner, and t...

1984 - and it's an important time for the children of Ragley-on-the Forest school... Their school choir is to sing a carol in a church in York, and is actually going to be on television! Helping to keep his excited children, not to mention their parents, under control during these momentous events taxes Jack and his staff to the limit.And at the same time, Jack has his own problems to deal with...

As the new school year begins, Jack Sheffield prepares for an even more eventful year than usual. A new teacher is appointed, and before long tongues start to wag.Meanwhile, five-year old Madona Fazackerly makes her mark in an unexpected way, life changes dramatically for Ruby the caretaker and, in the village Coffee Shop, Dorothy Humpleby plans a dirty weekend.It’s 1983 - the era of the new CD player, Microsoft Word, the McDonalds McNugget, cabbage patch dolls, the threat ...

As the 1982 school year begins, Jack Sheffield returns to Ragley village school for his sixth year as headteacher. Nora Pratt celebrates twenty-five years in her coffee shop, Ronnie Smith finally tries to get a job, and little Krystal Entwhistle causes concern in the school Nativity play. It's the time of ET and Greenham Common,. Price William's birth, Fame legwarmers and the puzzling introduction of the 20p piece. Meanwhile, for Jack, the biggest surprise of his life is in store....

It's 1977 and Jack Sheffield is appointed headmaster of a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. So begins Jack's eventful journey through the school year and his attempts to overcome the many problems that face him as a young and inexperienced headmaster.The many colourful chapters include Ruby the 20 stone caretaker with an acute spelling problem, a secretary who worships Margaret Thatcher, a villager who grows giant carrots, a barmaid/parent who requests sex lessons, a...