Martin Clunes opens up on ‘heartbreaking’ family farewell | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

TV star Martin Clunes has his houser full of four-legged friends, but this comes with some sad times alongside all the cuddles and bracing winter walks.

Speaking on Seann Walsh and Jack Dee’s pet-obsessed podcast Oh My Dog! The Doc Martin star explained that he and his wife, TV producer Philippa Braithwaite, first welcomed one dog into their house – but things went wrong when they got a second pup, expecting the animals to become friends: “We started with one, Mary, that we had before our daughter was born.”

Martin, who is set guest-host the final episode of the current 70th series of Have I Got News For You this week, explained: “Mary was very special and she had all kinds of problems with her hips and knees when she was tiny and had lots of surgery. So she became sort of super special and slept between our pillows. 

“And then when we moved, we thought it would be nice to get another little cocker spaniel for Mary, but that went disastrously wrong.

“She didn’t like her. They never bonded and they fought horrendously to the extent that actually, we had to have Tina go and live elsewhere, which was heart breaking because it was my dream…”

Sadly, Martin added, his dog Mary died not long afterwards while he was away on holiday. As a result, he and Philippa decided to reclaim that second dog: “On the way back from the airport, we picked up Tina from my in-laws. 

“And just to see the relief on my daughter’s face, I realised what a sacrifice she’d made in having to let the other one go. But it was too horrendous and we kept getting bitten in the crossfire.”

Ever the optimist, Martin continued to add to his dog family, despite the fact that a number of his furry friends ended up suffering from quite serious health problems. The next dog that they took in, Heidi Mary, had a litter of seven pups.

“We kept one, Bob Jackson…but Heidi, after the litter went blind, and now Bob’s pretty much blind. So it’s like a s*** zoo.”

Martin added that he had made a track across his land, and that helps his dogs work out where they are, despite their poor vision: “We’re well placed here because our house is in the middle of our farmland. And we made a track already for as I drive a carriage and it’s very hilly here. So we’d sort of cut a track, a three-and-a half-K track.

“So they can tell if they’re on it or they’re off it. So we don’t have to run them on leads or anything. We’re okay for blind dogs.

“But with Bob Jackson, it was really sad. Heidi went blind, she’s epileptic as well, went blind very, very slowly.”

Martin added that two of their other dogs also died in the past year: “Jim, who was kind of a Parsons Jack Russell, like Murray and John. But we knew that was coming. He had liver cancer and he was 14.”

Adding to the veritable army of dogs in his house, Martin also fosters and adopts retired guide dogs, including Laura, from The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. 

While his Doc Martin character loathes dogs, in reality Martin had a special bond with Dodger, the Jack Russell terrier who played Buddy on the show, describing him as “fantastic.”

Catch Martin on Have I Got News for You at 9pm tonight (Friday, December 12) on BBC One.