Martin Clunes learned about the death of Queen Elizabeth while living in a hut.
Martin Clunes on how he learned of the death of the Queen
The late monarch died in September at the age of 96 following a 70-year reign and former 'Men Behaving Badly' star Martin, 61, - who has 22-year-old Emily with wife Phillipa Braithwaite - was shooting his documentary series 'Islands of the Pacific' in Papa New Guinea with limited reception when his daughter managed to contact him to inform him of the news before he told the village.
He said: "It was mindblowing, this was the second half. I did three before but we got cut off by COVID. We went deeper, it felt like we went deeper and we were living in a village in Papa New Guinea, in the Trobriand Islands for a week. They built us huts to live in and they've got no Internet but the occasional bit of 3G wafts through. In the middle of the night, I got a text from my daughter to tell me that the Queen had died. It was really weird. I told the chief of our village and slowly over the next couple of days chiefs and elders from other tribes and villages came to offer their condolences and their chiefly respects. That's influence, isn't it? They were deeply moved by it."
Meanwhile, Martin has said goodbye to his role as Doc Martin after almost 20 years of playing the medic in the ITV series but insisted that it was the "right time" to end the Cornish-based drama, which is due to bow out with a seasonal special airing on Christmas Day.
Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', he said: "It's definitely the right time because I'd feel sad if it wasn't, if it was taken away from us. Now we've done it....I saw a rough cut of the Christmas one but I haven't seen it with the music and its special effects yet. But what happens is, everyone gets shipped down there for their bits and then they go away again so it sort of fizzled again so we didn't have a massive [party.]"
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