Martin Clunes: 'I'm a bunny-hugger'

Martin Clunes: 'I'm a bunny-hugger'
Martin Clunes: 'I'm a bunny-hugger' (Image credit: EMPICS Sports Photo Agency)

Martin Clunes has called himself a 'bunny-hugger', revealing his love of animals in a new show. The Doc Martin star’s Horsepower documentary looks at our relationship with horses and is the follow-up to his 2008 animal-related show A Man and His Dogs. Clunes explained: "I'm a bunny-hugger really - I like most animals." He added: "I used to ride when I was a kid, then didn't do it for ages. My wife Philippa is a frustrated horsewoman, she rode when she was a girl - and my daughter Emily's been riding since she was two, sitting on Shetlands in Richmond Park, but now she's brilliant. She's nine and she's a really clever little showjumper. "We bought this farm and built some stables, and just to be able to join in, I bought a horse too, called Chester. I love him and it's something that we, all three, can do together." The new series of the actor's hit show Doc Martin starts on Sunday and Clunes explained that he’s hopeful that there will be more made. He said: "I probably can't say right now, but I think it just got easier earlier. I've got a sneaking feeling they're not going to wait six months (to recommission) this time."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.