Judi Spiers on Saturday

The doctor will see you now...

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I KNOW it can be difficult to get an appointment with a doctor nowadays, but I've just had to cancel one for September 12.

Luckily, the doctor in question is Doc Martin actor Martin Clunes, and we were due to chat at the Appledore Book festival about his book 'Meetings with Remarkable Animals'. Unfortunately, I now can't make it but I'm not too disappointed as it's been my pleasure to have interviewed him on several occasions over the years.

I remember telling him when he was about to start filming a new series of Doc Martin that I'd just been to the fictional Portwenn (Port Isaac), to get a feel for the place before we chatted, and of course to the Doc's surgery. I can still hear his anguished voice as he said, “You didn’t knock on the door please?”

I reassured him that I didn’t. I was joking. But heaven knows what he makes of the visitors who walk around the village imitating the Doc’s straitjacket goosestep!