Martin Clunes On Dogs, Tights, and Vanity Fair

Never work with children or animals. Unless you’re Martin Clunes. The Vanity Fair star talks to Rosanna Greenstreet about carriages, horses and dogs

Behind the wheel of a brand new Lexus, Martin Clunes chats away ‘ hands-free’ as he speeds towards his Dorset home. He’s only just taken delivery of his new toy and, he tells me, it’s the most expensive thing he’s ever bought. 

“I am slightly mutton dressed as lamb,” he says cheerily in the distinctive voice that I recognise from Men Behaving Badly, the hit 90s sitcom which brought fame not only to Clunes but also to co-stars Neil Morrissey, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash. 

The show earned Clunes a Best Comedy Performance BAFTA for his portrayal of Gary Strang and today he is one of Britain’s best-loved and most sought-after actors, currently gracing our screens in the sumptuous ITV adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. 

He can turn his hand to pretty much anything. In 1998 he portrayed Richard Burbage in the award-winning movie Shakespeare in Love; he is the voice of Kipper in the animated children’s series Kipper the Dog; and, since 2004, he has played Doc Martin in the TV drama series of that name. Acting is in the blood: his grandparents and his father were all actors, and his late cousin, Jeremy Brett, was the definitive TV Sherlock Holmes of his era.

Clunes himself was born and raised in Wimbledon, while his favourite childhood memories include playing on the beach on family holidays in Majorca with his parents and sister, Amanda. However, these happy times came to an abrupt halt in 1970 when his father, Alec, died. Soon afterwards, when Clunes was just nine, he was sent to Barfield prep school in Farnham where homesick and bullied, he became a chronic bed-wetter – a problem which persisted into his early teens. 

“Being a bed-wetter at boarding school was a nightmare for me – and the rest of the dormitory,” he quips in his inimitable way. 

Now 56, Clunes has been happily married to the film and TV producer Philippa Braithwaite for over 20 years, leaving those miserable days far behind. The couple have a daughter, Emily, and live on a farm with more than a dozen horses. Indeed, when not behind the wheel of a fancy new car, Clunes is most likely to be found on the back of a horse.

“I rode as a child and then a bit as a young adult, and I’ve had horses for the past 12 years,” he explains. 

President since 2011 of the British Horse Society, the UK’s largest equestrian membership organisation, Clunes has presented various documentaries about horses – as well as cats, lemurs, lions and his beloved dogs – and also voices advertisements for the charity, Dogs Trust. In Vanity Fair, he plays Sir Pitt Crawley, a role which has reignited this equine enthusiast’s passion for carriage driving. 

“Sir Pitt is an MP. He’s got a bit of attitude, and one of the things I was overjoyed about in the script is that he drives his own horses. So I was immediately drawn to that and I started carriage driving again. I have a couple of Clydesdale horses that I drive, so they were happy for me to drive the carriages in some of the Vanity Fair scenes. But there was a high-speed sequence that they didn’t want me doing, for obvious reasons. That was fine by me as well!”

Playing the wealthy Sir Pitt also inspired Clunes to upgrade from the old cart usually pulled by his Clydesdales, Ronnie and Bruce. 

“I had a hitch cart – basically two wheels and a seat. You put the horses in it and use it to pull a harrow or a trailer. That’s what I cut my teeth on, but on Vanity Fair, I got to drive a carriage and a nice little wagon. It completely fired me up. I don’t like my old cart any more, so I ordered a state-of-the-art wagonette to be built in Germany.” 

Scenes on Sir Pitt’s country estate, Queen’s Crawley, were shot in Surrey at West Horsley Place – the Grade I listed house inherited by author and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne in 2014 – as well as at Mapledurham near Reading.

“West Horsley was my favourite of all the houses we visited,” says Clunes. “Freezing but beautiful. It’s colder inside than out. But it is really pretty. And it looks real, lived in and a bit wonky.”

In Vanity Fair, Sir Pitt is first seen driving a carriage with a pair of horses. Later he takes a party of people out for a ride in a wagon. But the new, bespoke Clunes wagonette remains stationary. 

“I wish I’d had a split second to drive it this summer,” reflects the proud owner. “But I am really working hard.” 

Partly that is down to a new ITV drama called Manhunt, based on the memoirs of former Metropolitan Police detective DCI Colin Sutton, who brought serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice. Bellfield haunted our area, abducting and murdering the Walton teenager Milly Dowler in 2002, before killing Marsha McDonnell in Hampton the following year and Amélie Delagrange in Twickenham in 2004. Clunes plays DCI Sutton in the drama, which will be shown in 2019. 

“Filming that has been quite daunting, but it’s a story worth telling. And it couldn’t be more different from Vanity Fair or anything else I’ve ever done.”

Next year will also see yet another series of Doc Martin – the ninth. Does Clunes ever think of retiring the good, but often grumpy, doctor? 

“No, I can’t afford it!” he laughs. “Well, it might end after the ninth series, but I’ve been caught saying that sort of thing before. It’s such a great job. Just so long as we keep it fresh and don’t repeat ourselves.”

Playing a GP in a sleepy Cornish village may seem a rather sedate role, but there has been the odd hair-raising moment. 

“Once I had to abseil down a cliff in a suit while carrying a medical bag. The idea was that I had to do an emergency trepanning on a man who had fallen off the cliff stealing chough eggs. I didn’t enjoy that!”

Dogs, however, are a different story. And on Vanity Fair Clunes was reunited with a four-legged friend that had been cast as Sir Pitt’s dog, Gorer.

“I’ve actually worked with that dog before, as he did an episode of Doc Martin. The worry with dogs is that you’ll lose filming time because of them, but that one was brilliant. We lost more time due to me than to him!” 

It is no surprise that, when asked what he most enjoyed about Vanity Fair, it is not the lavish costumes that Clunes remembers with unalloyed affection.

 “Really annoying breeches, tights, waistcoats, shirt, cravat and all of that stuff. Uncomfortable and annoying to wear,” is his unflattering verdict on them. 

“No, the highlight for me has been the animals – as much as I appreciate the other cast. I’m very happy working with the horses or playing with the dog.”

Vanity Fair continues on Sundays at 9 pm on ITV

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