Martin's out of his shell

Mike Ward previews tonight’s TV

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BACK in 2019, Martin Clunes began work on what would become a rather wonderful if somewhat challenging travel series, called Islands Of The Pacific.

I say “challenging” because Covid came along and forced him to take a lengthy break from filming it.

I say “wonderful” because, well, in the end it was. It wasn’t until 2022 that Martin was able to resume his travels, and it wasn’t until 2024 that the final episodes actually went out, but, yes, I'd say it was ultimately worth the hassle. Naturally, I'd rather he’d just filmed another series of Doc Martin instead (no need for any new storylines; just keep recycling the existing half-dozen, I'd have been fine with that) but I fear that’s never going to happen.