In the opening scene we can see that Doc Martin appears walks into a room with two local plumbers fixing the sink. In the very first shot, a low angle long shot (on the plumber's level) exaggerates the plumber's position on the floor. As Doc Martin walks into the room a tilt is used and the camera appears to go from looking at the plumber on his level to looking up at Doc Martin entering the room as though he is of a higher importance. Reinforcing this is further is the composition of the shot, as the Doctor is in the centre of the shot, whilst the others around him are on the outskirts and also physically lower down. Furthermore the costume of the characters also illustrates this to us. Doc Martin is dressed in smart, formal attire - wearing a full suit that suggests intelligence and sophistication. In contrast however, the local people are dressed in boiler suits - a uniform commonly associated with laborious occupations (confirmed when we see them fixing the sink). This illustrates to us that the local 'southern' people are being portrayed as inferior in terms of intelligence and sophistication to Doc Martin. This is further reinforced when the men exchange dialogue in the room. Doc Martin seems to mock the cleverness of the man sat in the chair by saying 'treat yourself to a noun' and by using complex lexis such as 'endearing'. This suggests that he is of a superior intellect, as meanwhile the man tries to explain the meaning of a word but avoids giving an actual definition, and uses lots of colloquialisms, fillers and simple vocabulary, but also that people of non-southern origin may be ignorant towards the southerners and consider them to be below their selves.
Next, the local people are being presented as lazy, unproductive and clumsy in this scene. The character that represents these characteristics is the plumber that is sat down. The fact that he is sat down and eating, suggests that he is not a hard worker and that he is delegating all of the work to his son. Also, it appears to be him that causes the water to disperse from the pipe as it happens after he puts his hand under the sink from his sitting position. Furthermore, when the water does come out, he seems to lack any sense of urgency and as his body language and the way in which he remains sat down offering no real contribution to finding a solution for the problem of the flooding shows. However, challenging this stereotype, the boy on the floor appears to be much more well informed than his father as he immediately notices his father's mistake exclaiming 'not that one!'. Also this is reinforced by him saying things such as 'it could be a literary reference' and talks about famous art (which could be considered a more cultured interest). Whilst this happens, the boy stands up from the floor, shown by a tracking shot. This reinforces that he has gained status within the room and shows us that not all of the local people are should be considered stupid and unknowledgeable, as he appears to be speaking on a similar level to Doc Martin.
When the water pipe bursts, Doc Martin seems to lack knowledge of what to do in the situation as he is probably not used to dealing with these issues and therefore lacks experience in the area. We can tell this from his use of dialogue when he says 'where's the.. the... the bloody what's it called.. the thing…'. However, he finds a cushion and uses it to cover up the orifice in which the water is coming from. This illustrates to us that although the more sophisticated Londoners may lack specialist knowledge in laborious occupations such as plumbing as they are stereotypically working in offices/business industries, although they are still represented as having a sense of initiative.
After this, the Doctor begins to appear very tense and stressed whilst the rest of the characters still appear very relaxed and laid back. The Doctor appears to come across like this through his use of dialogue and body language used to assert his authority by shouting imperative commands at those around him: 'Right, hold that and shut up. You, get off the telephone and find the stopcock. You, either get back to Delebolt, wherever that may be. Or go and find a mop and work out how to use it!' whilst pointing his finger at them (an aggressive gesture). The way he delegates tasks in this authoritative manner as well as the stressed, loud prosodic features in his voice suggests that the Doctor is very controlling and is used to being in charge, and the way that those that have been instructed comply to what they have been asked suggests that they respect the Doctor's authority and therefore consider him to be dominant in the situation.
Following this, we hear the diegetic sound of a dog inside the room. This suggests to us that the community that they live in is very tight-knit as it suggests that the doors are open allowing peoples pets to wander where they please between people's houses. Also, some extra narratives are introduced, such as the phone ringing and the secretary entering the room. This is presented with fast paced editing, reflecting the chaotic nature of the scene and the disrupted/stressed mood of the Doctor. Later on in the scene, as the Doctor says 'and as for you...' some background diegetic sound is played that increases the suspense in the scene, coupled with an extreme high angle POV shot looking down on the dog. This creates the idea that Doctor Martin is uncomfortable with animals or the idea of animals that he is unfamiliar with being in his presence. This could also suggest a sense of snobbery amongst the non-locals.
After this occurrence, the Dr takes the dog out with him to the local police station. On his walk to the station, there are a variety of things on screen that help us establish the location that the clips is set in due to the mid tracking shot that follows him on his walk. Firstly, from this we can see the streets that he walks through tend to be very narrow and the buildings appear to be old-fashioned looking and shops appear small and have no big brand labels attached to them, reinforcing that this is a rural village. Also that the streets are very quiet, suggesting the sparse population. Furthermore, we can hear the asynchronous diegetic sound of seagulls in the background and we can see props such as fishing nets placed outside shops, suggesting that it is a coastal area.
When the Doctor reaches the police station, we can see that it is very small. This means that there must be no need to have a station of substantial size, meaning that there must be little crime in the area. This is further reinforced when we see that there is only one officer working in the station. This officer is not carrying out any policing duties, instead he is just hoovering the carpet - shown by a tilting mid shot that emphasises this. This once again shows that there is little crime in the area, linking in with the idea the village is a tight knit community. The idea of a tight knit community is supported once again when the officer says to Dr. Martin 'Dr. Martin, nice to finally meet you'. This suggests to us that in small villages such as these there is often a sense of everybody knowing each other within the community, due to them often being so small in size. Another shot that suggests this to us is when we see a Mid shot of the Dr walking down the street, before stopping and looking over the railings into a window of a school building. The fact that this is so accessible to the public suggests that once again there is little crime and that everyone within the community can be trusted, as usually these types of buildings containing children would be more secure.
In the penultimate scene in this clip, the Dr is approached by a woman whilst walking down the street who asks him to write her a prescription. During conversation with the woman (dialogue), he mocks the hygiene of the current doctor's surgery in the town by saying 'judging by the state of his surgery, he didn't care much for hygiene either'. This gives us the impression that the higher classed Londoners are used to better standards of living and would consider anything less than their own standards to be inadequate. Furthermore, he gives into her ask and breaks the rules in order to issue her a prescription, showing that he is adopting the rural way in which things are done in the community. However, this could be due to the fact that she speaks in a similar accent and dialect to what he does, and because he therefore considers her to be on his level. Also, by now the doctor appears to be much more relaxed, implied by the slow pace of editing, with shots being presented for long periods of times without changing.
In the final scene, the Doctor is called over by an elderly villager who asks him to assist her. The woman is transporting lettuces from the back of a pickup truck into wooden boxes and then into her shop. We can assume that these are local produce that have been grown near by, showing us that in small rural communities, farming is a common occupation and that often villagers will grow their own foods rather than relying on exported foods from large suppliers. From looking at the costume of the woman, we can notice that it is predominantly very natural in colour, with lots of browns and greens being present, again reflecting the agricultural lifestyle in the region.
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