Doc Martin star Martin Clunes has attempted to lead a peaceful life away from the big screen on his picturesque 130-acre farm near Beaminster, Dorset.

According to Rightmove, house prices in Beaminster have an overall average of £389,709 over the last year. However, the tranquillity of his life there was interrupted by a contentious planning dispute with his neighbours last October.

Martin and his wife, TV producer Philippa Braithwaite, bought Higher Meerhay Farm for £3 million in 2007.

The property, which is nestled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has become a home to them as well as a functional farm.

But the couple’s quiet life was recently disrupted by an ongoing dispute with neighbours Theo Langton and Ruth McGill, who live in a caravan on a plot of land just 300 yards from the Clunes’ farmhouse.

Theo and Ruth, who are self-described "new age travellers", applied for permanent residential status for their site in 2022.

Martin employed barrister John Steel KC to argue against the application, disputing the couple’s claim of a nomadic lifestyle.

Steel contended that the couple don’t have evidence of a "nomadic habit of life" and cited Theo’s private education and land ownership as proof that they could find alternative accommodation.