Josh Charles To Star In Fox Adaptation Of British Hit ‘Doc Martin’ Ordered To Series For 2025-26

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of Doc‘s breakout success, Fox is doubling down on medical procedurals with a series order to one-hour comedy Best Medicine, based on the hugely popular British series Doc Martin. Josh Charles (The Good Wife, Sports Night) will take on the iconic character famously played by Martin Clunes for almost two decades. Charles is set as the lead, the peculiar and brilliant Doctor Martin Best, in Best Medicinefrom writer/executive producer Liz Tuccillo (Sex and the City) and Propagate Content. Wholly owned by Fox Entertainment, the series is slated to premiere during the 2025-26 season.

As Deadline noted in its annual pilot season report this past March, the Doc Martin adaptation had emerged as a frontrunner on the hourlong side at Fox. With the project headed to a likely series green light, Fox recently approached Charles for the lead whose casting is considered key to the show’s success. He just closed his deal, cementing Best Medicine‘s series pickup.

Best Medicine centers on Martin Best (Charles), a brilliant surgeon who abruptly leaves his illustrious career in Boston to become the general practitioner in a quaint East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a child. Unfortunately, Martin’s blunt and borderline rude bedside manner rubs the quirky, needy locals the wrong way, and he quickly alienates the town, even though he’s all they’ve got.

Although Martin can expertly address any medical ailment or mystery in this idiosyncratic town, he’s really just desperate to be left the hell alone. Instead, he keeps getting dragged right smack into the middle of their personal chaos, feuds and fantasies. What the locals don’t know is that Martin’s terse demeanor masks a debilitating new phobia and deep-seated psychological issues that prevent him from experiencing true intimacy with anyone. But tenacity is the creed of everyone in their small village, and the people who live there may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Executive producing the series are Tuccillo, Ben Silverman and Rodney Ferrell (Stick) of Propagate Content as well as the original series’ producers Mark Crowdy and Philippa Braithwaite.

The original Doc Martin, starring Clunes as Dr Martin Ellingham, premiered on ITV in 2004 and ran for 10 seasons. A global hit, which was available in the U.S. on PBS and Acorn TV, it turned the seaside village of Port Isaac, Cornwall where the series was filmed, into a popular tourist destination.

This marks the seventh international adaptation of the British series, which was created by Dominic Minghella and produced by Buffalo Pictures in association with Homerun Film Productions. Its format rights are being held by All3Media International, with France, Germany and Spain among the territories that have launched their own Doc Martin series.

It also marks the second hourlong series fully owned by Fox Entertainment after Monarch. Finding a wholly owned drama hit to complement live-action comedy Animal Control and animated half-hours Krapopolis and Grimsburg has been a goal of the Fox leadership. On the network’s schedule, Best Medicine will join popular new drama Docstarring Molly Parker, which received a rare 22-episode Season 2 renewal.

“The story of Doc Martin has resonated worldwide with its humanity, originality, and humor, and with Best Medicine coming to Fox, that eccentricity gets a small-town America spin, complete with idyllic charm and absurdity,” said Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network. “Liz, Mark, Philippa, Ben, and Rodney have done a terrific job adapting this signature character for the Fox audience, especially in casting the terrifically talented Josh Charles as our lead.”

Doc Martin was brought to the U.S. by Propagate Content, taking Silverman back to his roots as an agent and then-producer focused on British format adaptations, including The Officewhose acclaimed NBC version he executive produced.

“The entire Propagate team is thrilled to be working with Fox Entertainment on this extraordinary adaptation by Liz Tuccillo of the global hit Doc Martin,” Silverman said. “Josh Charles is the perfect lead for this brilliantly character-driven comedic procedural. Best Medicine is a world we’ll all want to be part of.”

In TV, Charles is best known as Dan Rydell on Sports Night and as Will Gardner on The Good Wife, which earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations. He appeared in Taylor Swift’s Fortnight music video and is currently recurring on the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale. He is repped by UTA.

Tuccillo, whose series credits also include Divorce and Alaska Daily, is repped by UTA and Felker Toczek Suddleson McGinnis Ryan LLP.