The Blazer

Aunt Ruth, get the look

It’s only a matter of time until Aunt Ruth, Eileen Atkins’s Stephanie Cole-replacing character on (sorry, sorry) Doc Martin, sleeps with Al. Al, the strapping young (late 20s?) man she sort of randomly took on as farm manager. He has just beaten her at chess. She’s impressed. But is she also, you know, impressed?

It would add up: Al’s same-age girlfriend appears to have been written out of the show. And Stephanie Cole’s Aunt Joan character—Aunt Ruth’s late sister—has a fling with a man 50 years her junior, which Martin witnesses in graphic real time.

There’s something in the water on the farm. The show’s universe not merely permits but demands this outcome. If you’ve seen beyond wherever I have and know if this happens or doesn’t, don’t tell me. But none of this is the subject of this post.