Girls, girls, girls drive the doc crazy!

Women troubles, a couple who can’t get pregnant, and a new headmaster whose health issues make him a danger to the village’s schoolchildren… No wonder Dr Martin Ellingham is stressed! He has more women in his life than he wants ¬¬– or knows how to cope with: there’s Louisa, who’s pregnant but wants nothing to do with him; there’s Edith, who’s determined to help him overcome his blood phobia and return to the cut and thrust life of a surgeon; and there’s Auntie Joan, who wants him to try harder with Louisa. Actually, there are four women with strong feelings about Portwenn’s grumpy GP if you count smitten pharmacist Mrs Tishell, but the Doc doesn’t. With all that going on in the background, the Doc opens his surgery to discover his receptionist Pauline’s aunt and uncle Jennie and Jimmy. They’re trying to get pregnant but without any success. Will Jimmy’s tearful confession to the Doc help him with his diagnosis? Then he gets a visit from the village school’s new headmaster (guest star David Haig), who’s complaining of constipation. But the consultation turns into a very strange encounter which ends suddenly when the headmaster rushes off. The Doc has seen enough to eventually make a diagnosis, though – but will he be in time to prevent a tragedy at the school?

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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.