The human touch

One of the television programmes I love watching is Doc Martin. It’s classed as a medical comedy drama with the wonderful actor Martin Clunes playing the title role of the GP, Dr Martin Ellingham. Doc Martin is portrayed as ‘socially inept’, which generates some dark humour. The GP, although being totally efficient and expert in his diagnostic skills, is overtly rude to everyone he meets and unintentionally offensive to many of his patients. It is a masterclass in how not to communicate with patients and yet many clinicians might envy the character's ability to communicate the succinct and core issues of the consultation in such a direct and meaningful way. The television drama, now in its ninth series, has kept the socially inept abilities of the main character constant, which have not improved despite marriage and parenthood. It portrays the main character as one who cannot develop or improve his communication skills. If he were to improve them, then the comedy within the drama would disappear and the series would come to an end.