Martin Clunes reveals he ‘accidentally crashed’ a car while filming Doc Martin Christmas special

Martin Clunes has revealed that he ‘crashed’ a car on set while filming the series finale of Doc Martin.

The 61-year-old actor, who plays the main character Doctor Martin Ellingham in the series, told how he suffered the accident after turning the car into artificial snow.

Appearing on the BBC’s The One Show, Martin said he could share “very little” about the final episode which airs on Christmas Day.

Mishap: Martin Clunes has revealed that he ‘crashed’ a car on set while filming Doc Martin

McFly star Harry Judd asked Martin what fans could expect from the finale, and the actor said it’s like a “Marvel movie.”

Speaking about how he ‘accidentally crashed’, Martin added: ‘There’s a grumpy doctor, there’s lots of snow and there’s a real turkey! It’s like a Marvel movie! There is a trick, I crashed a car by mistake.

Harry asked, ‘Do they use that in the episode?’

Martin said, ‘Well, I was supposed to drive towards the camera, they left the camera and I was supposed to drive out of that shot.

Accident: The 61-year-old actor, who plays the main character Doctor Martin Ellingham in the series, told how he suffered the accident after turning the car into artificial snow

“And then the next shot they cut to would be a stuntman crashing into the tree, but I turned, in the fake snow, I had no traction.”

The actor added that he “brown into the tree” but insisted he wasn’t hurt, saying he “saw it coming and everything was fine.”

Co-host Alex Jones later said, “This episode is everything you’d want for a Christmas Day finale, but of course Doc Martin shows up and ruins the Christmas spirit.”

In the Christmas special, the grumpy doctor locks the grotto down because he fears Santa has something contagious, upsetting his son James (Elliott Blake) and the other kids.

Earlier this year news broke that Doc Martin would end after 18 years, with the final series consisting of eight episodes and the Christmas special.

Martin said: ‘There’s a catch, I crashed a car by mistake. I was supposed to drive towards the camera, they left the camera and I was supposed to walk out of that shot.’

Announcing the news of the show’s end in late 2020, Martin and producer Philippa Braithwaite explained that they decided to end Doc Martin now to allow fans the chance to celebrate the show and its lead character with a series finale.

They said, ‘We’ve loved doing nine series of Doc Martin. When we launched the series in 2004, we could never have imagined how much our loyal viewers would accept the grumpy Doc the way they have.

“The series has an avid fan base both in the UK and around the world and we are delighted that Doc Martin has topped the ratings every time.

“However, after 16 years we now feel the time has come to say goodbye to Portwenn.

“We’ll be doing the tenth and final series in 2021 and we’re really looking forward to getting back to Cornwall to film it.”

Interview: Actor added he ‘brown in the tree’ but insisted he wasn’t hurt, saying he ‘saw it coming and everything was fine’