It has really been a lot of fun learning about the UK through British comedies, dramas, and mysteries shown on
Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) in the USA. My personal favorite discovery was that of Martin Clunes and his
rather prolific works in British comedy TV series, documentaries, children's programs and even books. He is a well
rounded entertainer with a background in theater who is sure to make you laugh at something he does. There is a lot
of 'old school' slap-stick comedy in Martin Clunes!
In 2009 local PBS broadcasting introduced us to Doc Martin starring Martin Clunes as Dr. Martin
Ellingham. Although the series began in 2004 in the UK, it finally made its way to the PBS stations in my local
Midwest viewing area in 2009. There are currently four seasons recorded and a fifth season may be filmed in 2011.
So far only the first three seasons have been viewed in America to my knowledge. (As of February 2010)
An interest in actor Martin Clunes has swelled up in America as a result and now many of his movies and some of
the television series are readily available for a hungry USA market.
There is far more to Martin Clunes than Doc Martin!
From Wikipedia: "Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is a BAFTA and SAG award-winning English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as
Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly and Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc
Martin."
For me Doc Martin was reason enough to look at the long theatrical career of Martin Clunes. Did
you know for instance that he starred in four episodes of Doctor Who in 1983 called "Snakedance"? It was not a surprise to find he is an actor of renown or that character parts
are his speciality.
On Martin Clunes' filmography at IMDb there is a listing for Hunting Venus, a made for British
television movie that is now sort of a cult classic and virtually impossible to find on DVD. It is, however, freely
available online with rather poor video quality and without any sound at all in clip #2 of the ten part series.
Martin plays Simon Delancey who is a con artist and scoundrel you really don't want to know. The movie video
clip below is the song called Starburst performed by the Venus Hunters near the
end of the movie. And yes, that is Neil Morrissey singing lead with Martin Clunes singing backup and playing
bass.
Special guest appearances by Phil Oakey (Human League), Tony Hadley (Spandau
Ballet), Jools Holland (composer, pianist), Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran),
Yasmin Le Bon (Simon Le Bon's wife), Gary Numan (Tubeway Army), Guy
Oliver-Watts (actor) and archive footage from Midge Ure (Ultravox). Is that Philippa
Braithwaite at 1:16?
When I searched for information about Martin Clunes in Google, the number one site that came up was a very
informative Wikipedia entry about him. It's a great place to start if you want to know more about Martin
Clunes.
His big break came in 1992 with the original British TV comedy series called Men Behaving Badly
but he already had ten years of television performances under his belt.
The program name was familiar to me as an American series although I confess I never watched the US version.
Turns out the Brits had it going on first and they did such a good job of it that the premise was used here. Too
bad they didn't just import the original show!
Reggie Perrin is the latest British TV series Martin Clunes is working on. He
stars as Reggie Perrin; a man who is having a problem with small talk and being the disposable razor king. He fears
he is going mad with a sudden inability to be interested in his work.
So at the end of the first season he has just gone off the deep end while giving a speech. As he leaves
Groomtech for the last time, he removes a photograph of his wife from his much hated brief case and tosses the
brief case in the bushes.
He hitchhikes to a Sussex beach, strips, opens his suitcase and says, "Goodbye old Reggie. Hello new Reggie."
Then he contemplates ending it all and the viewer is left watching Reggie stand naked on the stony beach gazing out
into the gray water and sky, wondering what will happen next.
The second season of Reggie Perrin has begun filming and here's an update:
