Martin Clunes Biography

Alexander Martin Clunes, OBE (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV drama series Doc Martin and Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly. Clunes has narrated a number of documentaries for ITV, the first of which was Islands of Britain in 2009. He has since presented a number of documentaries centred on animals. He has also voiced Kipper the Dog in the animated series, Kipper.

Clunes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama, charity and the community.

Early life

Clunes was educated at the Royal Russell School in Croydon, London and later at the Arts Educational School. He is the son of classical actor Alec Clunes, who died of lung cancer when Clunes was eight years old. He has an older sister Amanda. He is a nephew of the actor Jeremy Brett.

Career

Clunes served his first role in rep at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and his first television appearance came in the 1983 Doctor Who story Snakedance. But a sporadic career led to his supplementing his income as a photo model for Gilbert and George, and he can be seen in their 1983 work World.

He got his first regular television role as one of the sons in the BBC sitcom No Place Like Home, and then starred in two series of the sitcom All at No 20.

While Clunes was appearing on stage at the Hampstead Theatre, Harry Enfield came to see him; the acquaintanceship developed into a friendship where Clunes played characters in Enfield's sketch shows (most notably one of the Rugby Players). Enfield then recommended Clunes for the role of Gary in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, written for Enfield by Simon Nye, bringing Clunes his best-known role to date and for which he won a BAFTA television award for Best Comedy Performance in 1996. He played the part of Group Captain Barker in the 2-part TV mini-series Over Here that same year. In 1993, he played Dick Dobson in Demob about a pair of demobilized soldiers who have to adjust to civilian life after entertaining Second World War troops with a raunchy cabaret act.

Since 1994, Clunes has frequently appeared on the BBC One panel show Have I Got News for You as a panelist or a guest presenter.

Clunes has since appeared in films and television shows such as An Evening with Gary Lineker, Staggered (starred and directed), Hunting Venus, The Booze Cruise, Saving Grace and Jeeves and Wooster. In 1998, he was featured in Sweet Revenge and appeared as Richard Burbage in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love. Clunes has also acted frequently for the radio, including a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi.

In 2001, he played Captain Stickles in the BBC adaptation of R. D. Blackmore's Lorna Doone.

In 2002, Clunes played serial killer John George Haigh in a Yorkshire TV production A Is for Acid, and took the lead in ITV's production of Goodbye Mr Chips.

Clunes was one of the eponymous leads in the 2004 ITV comedy-drama William and Mary, with Julie Graham. Clunes had worked with Julie Graham previously on Dirty Tricks (2000).

Since 2004, Clunes has played the lead role of Doctor Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy drama series Doc Martin.

In August 2007, Clunes starred in the ITV/TVNZ co-production The Man Who Lost His Head.

Clunes is a regular voice over artist and is the voice of Kipper in the animated children's series Kipper the Dog. For six years (1993-1999) he also did voice acting for Safeway adverts; he provided the voice of Harry in Safeway's 'When Harry Met Molly' advertising campaign during said years.

Clunes appeared in a television dramatisation of Fungus the Bogeyman playing Jessica White's father.

Between 2009 and 2010, Clunes starred on BBC One television in the title role of Reggie Perrin, a re-make of classic 1970s British situation comedy The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. In 2015, Martin played the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the ITV mini-series Arthur & George. In 2018, Clunes will play the role of DCI Colin Sutton in the ITV drama Manhunt.

Film

Clunes played Brock in the 1990 film The Russia House. He played Richard Burbage in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, and Anthony Staxton-Billing in Sweet Revenge the same year. In 2000, Clunes played the role of Dr. Martin Bamford in the film Saving Grace, and the follow up to that film Doc Martin the following year (2001), he played James Chancellor in Global Heresy.

In 2011, Clunes voiced the mischievous dog Dudley in the short film Me or the Dog, starring Edward Hogg and directed by Abner Pastoll. Clunes then starred in the 2014 film Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?.

Documentaries

In 2008, Clunes presented Martin Clunes: A Man and his Dogs, which was aired on 24 August 2008. In 2009, Clunes presented a three-part ITV series Islands of Britain, which saw him travelling around several of the country's lesser known islands.

In 2010, Clunes presented ITV mini-series Horsepower about man's relationship over time with the horse. This was followed by Heavy Horsepower which aired in 2013.

In January 2011, Clunes presented documentary Martin Clunes: Man to Manta.

In June 2012, Clunes presented a documentary series on ITV about the lemurs of Madagascar called Martin Clunes: The Lemurs of Madagascar.

On 31 January 2013, Clunes narrated ITV documentary Secret Life of Dogs. Then, on 2 and 3 June 2014, he narrated two more follow-up documentaries, Secret Life of Cats and Secret Life of Babies.

On 4 April 2014, Clunes hosted a one-off ITV documentary called Martin Clunes & A Lion Called Mugie, following the work of conservationists in Kenya as well as tracking the progress of a lion called Mugie. The documentary was filmed over a period of three years.

In August 2014, Clunes narrated ITV's three-part documentary series Kids with Cameras: Diary of a Children's Ward which saw Newcastle's children's ward through the eyes of its patients.

On 3 December 2013, it was announced that Clunes will narrate a three-part documentary series called Islands of Oz, to be filmed in Australia in 2014, for Australia's Seven Network. Production company, Prospero Productions, explained that the series "follows acclaimed actor and comedian Martin Clunes as he explores the most diverse, intriguing, remote and spectacular islands that surround Australia".

In April 2015, Clunes narrated Carry on Forever, a three part documentary series for ITV3. It was shown over the Easter weekend.

In May 2015, Clunes presented Man & Beast with Martin Clunes, a two-part factual series for ITV, which looked at the relationship between humans and animals.

In 2016, he narrated Rising Damp Forever, a two-part documentary series for ITV3. He also voiced ITV programmes Secrets of Growing Old, Secrets of Growing Up and Britain's Favourite Dogs.

Personal life

Clunes' first marriage was to actress Lucy Aston in 1990. They divorced in 1997 and Clunes married future Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwaite late that year. In 1998, Braithwaite gave birth to their daughter Emily. Clunes lives with his family in Beaminster, Dorset where they run a farm with heavy horses. He became president of the British Horse Society on 1 June 2011.

Clunes enjoys the music of Frank Zappa, as stated on his episode of Desert Island Discs, wherein one of his selections was "Doreen" from Zappa's album You Are What You Is.

Clunes is an avid supporter of EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers.

Charity

A sponsor of numerous charities, Clunes made a short on-line film with Stephen Fry about HIV discrimination for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Clunes supports Weldmar Hospicecare Trust in Dorset. The Buckham Fair is organised in support of the charity. In January 2011, Clunes became patron of Animal Care in Egypt.

Clunes is also a patron of the Born Free Foundation and has filmed several adverts for the wildlife charity. He has been involved in the Comic Relief charity which funds Survival International and African Initiatives, two organisations working with the Maasai on indigenous land rights issues. Clunes is also a celebrity supporter of The Dog Rescue Federation.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Awards
1983	Doctor Who	Lon	Serial: Snakedance
1983-1986	No Place Like Home	Nigel Crabtree
1990-1992	Harry Enfield's Television Programme	Various characters
1991	Jeeves and Wooster	Barmy Fotheringay Phipps
1992	Inspector Morse	James Balcombe
1992-1998	Men Behaving Badly	Gary Strang	British Comedy Award for Top TV Comedy Actor (1995) BAFTA Award for Best Comedy Performance (1996)
1993	Demob	Dick Dobson
1994-	Have I Got News for You	Guest presenter/panellist
1997-2000	Kipper	Kipper
2002	A Is for Acid	John Haigh
2003-2005	William and Mary	William Shawcross
2004-	Doc Martin	Dr. Martin Ellingham	British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor (2004)
2007	The Man Who Lost His Head	Ian Bennett
2008	Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs	Presenter
2009	Islands of Britain	Presenter	Three-part series
2009-2010	Reggie Perrin	Reginald "Reggie" Perrin
2010	Martin Clunes: Horsepower	Presenter	Mini-series
2011	Martin Clunes: Man to Manta	Presenter
2012	Martin Clunes: The Lemurs of Madagascar	Presenter	Mini-series
	A Mother's Son	Ben
	The Town	Len Robson
2012	Room on the Broom	Dog (voice)
2013	Strike Back: Shadow Warfare	Sebastian Grey
	Martin Clunes: Heavy Horsepower	Presenter	One-off episode
2013, 2017	Secret Life of Dogs	Narrator	4 episodes
2014	Martin Clunes & A Lion Called Mugie	Presenter	One-off episode
	Secret Life of Cats	Narrator	One-off episode
	Secret Life of Babies	Narrator	One-off episode
	Kids with Cameras: Diary of a Children's Ward	Narrator	Three-part series
2015	Arthur & George	Arthur Conan Doyle	Three-part drama series
	Carry On Forever	Narrator	Three-part series
	Man & Beast with Martin Clunes	Presenter	Two-part series
	Secret Life of Twins	Narrator	One-off episode
2016	Rising Damp Forever	Narrator	Two-part series
	Secrets of Growing Old	Narrator	One-off episode
	Secrets of Growing Up	Narrator	One-off episode
	Britain's Favourite Dogs	Narrator	One-off episode
	Les Dawson Forever	Narrator	Two-part series
2017	Martin Clunes: Islands of Australia	Presenter	Mini-series
	Morecambe & Wise Forever	Narrator	Two-part series
	Tommy Cooper Forever	Narrator	Two-part series
2018	Manhunt	DCI Colin Sutton	Drama series
	Vanity Fair	Sir Pitt Crawley	Drama series
	Warren	Warren Thompson	Upcoming sitcom series

Film

Year	Title	Role	Awards
1990	The Russia House	Brock
1992	Carry On Columbus	Martin
1993	Dancing Queen	Donald
1993	Swing Kids	Bannfhrer
1994	Staggered	Neil
1998	The Acid House	Rory
	Shakespeare in Love	Richard Burbage
	Sweet Revenge	Anthony Staxton-Billing
1999	Hunting Venus	Simon Delancy
2000	Saving Grace	Dr. Martin Bamford
2001	Doc Martin	Dr. Martin Ellingham
2002	Global Heresy	James Chancellor
2002	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	Mr. Chipping
2014	Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?	Jeremy Shepherd

Awards and honours

• 1995 - British Comedy Awards, Top TV Comedy Actor : Men Behaving Badly - Gary Strang
• 1996 - BAFTA Awards, Best Comedy Performance : Men Behaving Badly - Gary Strang
• 1999 - Screen Actors Guild Awards, Outstanding Performance by a Cast : Shakespeare in Love - Richard Burbage
• 2007 - Honorary Doctorate from Bournemouth University
• 2015 - OBE for services to drama, charity and the community