Martin Clunes - Biography

Rate: Martin Clunes has come a long way from the beer drinking slob in Men Behaving Badly. He seems to be loved by the ITV-watching middle classes and that's absolutely fine by us.

His first proper TV role was actually in a 1980's episode of Doctor Who entitled Snakedance. Before you go dusting off the archives, it's actually funny to think that Martin was later linked with playing the role of the Doctor in the latest remake.

Martin built a friendship with Harry Enfield after he played on stage and the pair met. This led to Martin playing characters in Harry's sketch shows. So it was Harry Enfield who recommended Martin for the role of Gary in the 90s sitcom Men Behaving Badly. The show was a big success and Martin ended up winning a BAFTA television award in 1996 for the role.

The laddish comedy is long forgotten now Martin has a big more sensible comedy/drama on his hands. Doc Martin, on ITV, sees Clunes play a GP. Not really our cup of tea but a lot of people do seem to like it and it must have been these people who voted for Martin to win the Most Popular Actor at the National Television Awards.

In 2007 Martin was awarded an honorary doctorate (we still don't really know what this means but it certainly looks like fun) at Bournemouth University.

vMartin's been married more than once. Shock! Firstly to actress Lucy Aston which ended in divorce when Martin started a relationship with a TV producer called Phillipa Braithwaite, whom he married in 1997. They now have a daughter, who was born in 1999, called Emily.

Martin starred in a documentary which saw him chart the family tree of his dogs. We're not making this up.