Martin Clunes

Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, director and television presenter.

He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin and Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly.

Clunes was born on 28 November 1961 in Wimbledon (then in Surrey, now in Greater London), the son of actor Alec Clunes and his second wife, Daphne ( Acott) Clunes (4 July 1928 – 17 September 2007).

Clunes was educated at the Royal Russell School in Croydon, and later at the Arts Educational Schools, London.

He has an older sister, Amanda.

Clunes is related to actor Jeremy Brett, who was variously described as either Clunes's uncle or cousin.

Clunes played his first role in rep at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and his first television appearance was in an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The White Guard for the BBC Play of the Month in 1982, followed by the Doctor Who story Snakedance in 1983.

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).

Clunes played Brock in the 1990 film The Russia House.

He played a character called Martin in the 1992 film Carry On Columbus; Richard Burbage in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love; and Anthony Staxton-Billing in Sweet Revenge the same year.

In 1993, he played Dick Dobson in Demob about a pair of demobilised soldiers who have to adjust to civilian life after entertaining Second World War troops with a raunchy cabaret act.

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.

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.

Enfield then recommended Clunes for the role of Gary in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, written for Enfield by Simon Nye, for which Clunes won a British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1996.

He played the part of Group Captain Barker in the two-part TV mini-series Over Here that same year.

In 1998, he was featured in Sweet Revenge and appeared as Richard Burbage in the film Shakespeare in Love.

Clunes has also acted frequently for the radio, including a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi.

Clunes had worked with Julie Graham previously on Dirty Tricks (2000).

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 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.

From 2004 until the conclusion in 2022 Clunes 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.

In 2008, Clunes presented Martin Clunes: A Man and his Dogs, which was aired on 24 August 2008.

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.

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 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 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?.

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

In 2015, Clunes played the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the ITV mini-series Arthur & George.

In 2018, Clunes played the role of DCI Colin Sutton in the ITV drama Manhunt (first screened in 2019).

In 2019, Clunes return to sitcom with the BBC1 series Warren, saying "It was just so funny, I couldn't turn it down".