PBS show Doc Martin with Martin Clunes is set to get an American version with Josh Charles (The Good Wife) to star as the titular character.
Fox has made a full order for the series — to be called Best Medicine – which will premiere during the 2025-26 season.
Best Medicine will center on Doctor Martin Best (Charles), “a brilliant surgeon who abruptly leaves his illustrious career in Boston to become the general practitioner in a quaint East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a child”.
“Unfortunately, Martin’s blunt and borderline rude bedside manner rubs the quirky, needy locals the wrong way, and he quickly alienates the town, even though he’s all they’ve got,” the tagline reads.
As fans of the original show will know, what the locals don’t know is that the doctor’s demeanor masks a “debilitating new phobia and deep-seated psychological issues that prevent him from experiencing true intimacy with anyone”.
“The story of Doc Martin has resonated worldwide with its humanity, originality, and humor, and with Best Medicine coming to Fox, that eccentricity gets a small-town America spin, complete with idyllic charm and absurdity,” said Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network.
Best Medicine marks the seventh international adaptation of the British series. Doc Martin ran on ITV for 10 seasons between 2004 and 2022, and became a primetime fixture in the UK.
It ended with Dr. Martin Ellingham choosing to stay in Portwenn with wife Louisa and their children, after a dramatic build-up to a planned move to London. He was last seen letting paper lanterns fly into the night sky, keeping the door open for a return.
© CBS via Getty ImagesThe British episodes are available on PBS and Acorn TV.
Josh is currently on TV in The Handmaid’s Tale; he also starred in Sports Night and later The Good Wife, and in 2024 he appeared in the music video for Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight”.
The video for The Tortured Poets Department’s lead single saw Taylor strapped to a scientist’s chair as Post Malone, playing the scientists, and his team, actors Ethan Hawke and Josh, performed experiments.
“Fortnight” was the first track on the album, produced by Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, and illustrates what is to come in the following 30 tracks.
The subject of the song is open to interpretation but many believe it to be about the end of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, and how she only loved him for a “fortnight” in the grand scheme of her life.
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