I'm not terribly surprised that, since dumping cable service, I've enjoyed British TV broadcast over-the-air by PBS more than almost every show I would watch night in, night out on channel number 17,945. About a week ago, my wife and I caught a show called Doc Martin, which features one of our favorite British comediennes, Katherine Parkinson (from The IT Crowd), in a supporting role.

Parkinson (l.) and Clunes (r.)

The fourth season episode we saw found former London surgeon Martin Ellingham fighting against both the abrasively progressive ideas of a midwife and the backwater custom of eating roadkill in the country village where he lives. Ellingham is played by Martin Clunes, best known to American audiences from playing theatre owner Richard Burbage in Shakespeare in Love. The whole damn show appears to be quite good, and that's coming from someone obsessed with "grumpy virtuoso dramedies (that lean more on comedy)" like House MD and Chef!. The saints at Acorn Media have four seasons of Doc Martin out on DVD in the States. Give it a look.