Although the fictional Dr. Martin Ellingham hates dogs with a fiery passion and is often seen chasing strays from his surgery, the actor who portrays him, Martin Clunes, is a great lover of dogs and brings them with him to the sets every day, and admitted that he always felt terribly guilty about having to chase and yell at the stray dog that appears through the series.
The fictional village of Portwenn is filmed in the real-life village of Port Isaac, Cornwall, England, U.K. between tourist seasons.
The second season was dedicated to prop manager John Coleman, who died when he fell from a cliff in Port Isaac during a break in the filming of this show.
Martin's (Martin Clunes) entire wardrobe consists of suits and shirts. The only time he is not in a suit is at bedtime; he even wears suits on his days off.
Quite often during the series there are references to people being "a bit Bodmin". This is a reference to the fact that Bodmin was once the county town, and so the home of the Cornwall County Lunatic Asylum.