Martin Clunes has told how he had to adjust his wardrobe for the latest series of Doc Martin after he lost a stone in weight.
The TV star, 51, shed the pounds after catching a virus.
He told the Radio Times: "I had a virus and lost a stone. They had to remake my wardrobe to fit."
Asked whether Martin, who plays doctor Martin Ellingham on the show, diagnosed his own illness, his wife, Doc Martin's producer Philippa Braithwaite, said: "He thinks so."
The former Men Behaving Badly star admitted: "I'm all over it. I'm always interested in people's treatments. I ask them, 'What did they prescribe you?' I love it when I get an operation - I even got to wear scrubs this season.
"I felt so heroic. It's not so interesting when a lawyer gets a criminal off, but when a doctor fixes someone's brain..."
Philippa told the magazine that the hit show, which launched in 2004 and is sold abroad, would not get commissioned now if it had not been on screen before.
She said: "I said to ITV recently, I don't think if we brought them Doc Martin now, they'd commission it, and they said they probably wouldn't know what it was. When we launched there was Cold Feet, William and Mary, Life Begins... but now, there's almost nothing like it. They'd like us to do more, but it wouldn't be good if we did it every year."
Her comments came as a US TV executive told the Radio Times that British drama has reached a high point. "I think British drama now is stronger than it's been for years," Eric Luskin, who buys British drama for TV stations across the US, said.
"It's got ambition, range and confidence. We (the US) can't get enough of it... Basically, since Lost in Austen you guys have pretty much hit gold."
