Sure Martin Clunes is playing both Doc Martins and they are both set in Cornwall but their back stories are completely different, their reasons for being in Cornwall are completely different, even their last names are completely different. I went from the movies to starting to watch the series. I wont bore anyone with the details but this Doc Martin is driven to leave town because his marriage fell apart. The movie is more about him coping with his emotions and coping with the eccentric highly suspicious of foreigner locals. After seeing this, I began to wonder if the TV show, the Prisoner was always an unintended satire of these types of villages.
Anyway, there is alot of the same type of humor in the series and this movie but Doc Martin Bamford has a much easier time making friends because he is relatable and enjoys hanging out at the pub. He gets stoned to spite his cheating wife who isn't even there. He has a taste for fishing instead of just fish and of course he has no blood phobia. I particularly like the jelly idea too and am surprised that those kinds of local eccentricities were abandoned for the series. The series has eccentric locals but no really strange customs like using jellys in a malevolent manner. This Doc Martin has no family relations in the area and his visiting was purely impulsive. He is introduced as being likable and highly impulsive, emotional and not always possessing the best judgement when his emotions run high. That is the opposite of the uptight, upper class eccentric Dr Martin Ellingham in the Series. This Martin Bamford is more at home with the people in the Cornish village than the people he left behind in London. Really, if anyone has seen the movie Saving Grace, it is easier to see this movie and the legend of the cloutie as prequels to that.
Its best to think of this movie and the sequel which has a denser story and is even further removed from the Series as just starters for the basic premise, continuation from the movie Saving Grace and NOT prequels. Not that the Series needed a prequel because Doc Martin Ellingham first arrives in the first episode and they've had 15 years to develop his character and backstory. Bamford not only is destined to be a GP but he is destined to be a genuine member of the community in every sense. It is almost a shame these movies did not directly lead to a TV series carrying on from the followup movie, but maybe there wouldn't have been enough blatant conflict to make it work very long. Things end harmoniously.
