This month we speak to Philip Sloman at Roscarrock Farm — home of the agricultural-building-turned-studio where Doc Martin has been filmed for almost twenty years.
Nestled in the rolling hills between Port Isaac and Port Quinn, Roscarrock Farm is one of the oldest settled farms in Cornwall — so old, in fact, that it’s listed in the Domesday Book. The original Roscarrocks are long gone, and the farm is now owned by the Sloman family — Robert, Kate, and their four sons.
As the name suggests, their core business is farming, but they’ve diversified into weddings, cottage rentals and, crucially, television. It all started in 2000, when they built a grain store. “We’ve had grain in it once”, says Philip Sloman, the family’s point person for all filming enquiries.
When the Doc Martin production crew first commandeered the grain store as a pop-up studio, it was an experiment in two respects. Firstly, could this agricultural building be transformed into a working soundstage? Sound checks and a little work blacking out the space answered that question — yes! Secondly, would viewers take to Martin Clunes’ grumpy London doctor and the charming village of Portwenn? They did, so the series was recommissioned and the studio reassembled. Filming returns every other year, and the grain has had to be stored elsewhere ever since.
“We found that agricultural buildings can be adapted very easily to become studios.” Philip is keen to impress upon me that he and his family provide a space, and let the crew get on with their thing. In fact, that’s part of the deal. “As much as they’re paying for the studio facility, they’re also paying for us to shut up. We are well out of their way, and they have free rein to do whatever they want.”
As a result of this deal, and the rural location with almost no traffic noise, minimal soundproofing was required. A parallel lighting rig hangs from the steel frame of the building and all other light is blacked out, giving the crew full control. Doc Martin fans will be familiar with one of the series’ core sets — the inside of the doctor’s surgery — but they probably don’t imagine that it exists inside a barn. Philip gives me a verbal tour of the other locations that have popped up in these buildings over the years. “We’ve had the inside of the police station and Bert Large’s kitchen. Now we’ve got the underground bar of the Golden Lion and a little alleyway in Port Isaac.” They’ve also housed the interior of Godrevy Lighthouse — presumably because it saved the crew piling into boats to film the real thing.
The crew has the space to build any sets they need — they also rent the adjacent building as a prop store and production offices, with plenty of hard standing for additional buildings to house costume, catering and the edit suite. Even when the crew are away on location (“They’re only in there when it’s raining, as a rule of thumb, because it never rains on film”) the farm acts as a unit base, with ample space to park a crew of 80, plus extras. With all that excitement going on around them, it must be impossible not to get caught up in it? “Virtually all of the family have been extras”, Philip says, and he’s always on hand to drive a Land Rover across the moor — “We always get roped into something!”
The Doc Martin crew aren’t the only ones to have discovered Roscarrock. They’ve hosted FFP New Media for the Rosamunde Pilcher television movies, as well as adverts for Tesco and Mastercard. The medieval manor house was Nampara in the 1970s TV adaptation of Poldark and, as Philip tells me, “Productions are forever using our cliffs (which comprise three unspoilt headlands) for the views up and down the coast”. It’s not surprising; those views were described by poet John Betjeman as “one of the great surprises our country has to offer, still mysterious & intact”. In other words, directors and DOPs can’t get enough.
With Doc Martin due to shoot a tenth and final series next year, Philip says they’re keen for their spaces to host more productions. With the scarcity of UK studio space widely reported in recent years, they’re likely to garner a lot of interest from productions looking for a quiet base a little further afield.
Aside from the views, the easy-to-adapt space, and the quiet, what can productions expect from the Roscarrock Farm studio? “There’s no public access, so they can really relax when they come here. They’re not in the hustle and bustle.” For productions used to dealing with privacy issues at city-based studios, this would be a welcome relief. It’s a literal breath of fresh air, in fact — Philip says crews love being on the farm, and one recurring Doc Martin crew member contrasts the hassle of trying to squeeze his trailer into underground car parks in central London with the joy of walking his dog along the coast at lunchtime.
As for the facilities, Philip puts it perfectly — “We’re not Pinewood, but Doc Martin’s become a bit of a biggie over the years.” The fact that the grain store studio has delivered the goods for ten series indicates that Roscarrock Farm is more than fit for purpose for a sizeable production.
“It’s been a significant part of our lives here, and we’re proud of the fact that Doc Martin has gone on for nearly twenty years. Any other film company can look at that success and be reassured that it does work.”
Echoing what has been a recurring theme of our conversation, Philip adds, “It’s very much Doc Martin’s success. We merely provide the space for that to happen.”
Written by Alex MJ Smith, with thanks to Philip Sloman and Roscarrock Farm.
