FANS of Doc Martin will know that Caroline Catz has played Louisa Glasson in the iconic ITV drama for the past 17 years.
But what many may not know is that she has another drama connection in her real life – as she’s married to a former EastEnders villain.
Actress Caroline, 51, whose real last name is Caplan, is married to another TV drama favourite, Michael Higgs, who played Andy Hunter in the BBC One soap.
Luckily she wasn’t put off by his criminal appearance on-screen, with his character leading ‘The Firm’ after the murder of Jack Dalton.
The happy couple, who got married in 2007, met on the set of The Bill – where Caroline played Rosie Fox for two years.
Her husband-to-be depicted PC Eddie Santini over the same two year period – and after hitting it off behind-the-scenes, the pair began dating.
Since then, Caroline and Michael have welcomed two children, 20-year-old son Sonny and 15-year-old daughter Honour.
As well as The Bill, Caroline has starred in many other shows including DCI Banks, Agatha Christie’s Marple and BBC One sitcom I Want My Wife Back.
The actress first starred in medical comedy-drama Doc Martin in 2004, and has kept her role for all nine seasons of the iconic show.
She stars alongside lead actor and on-screen husband Martin Clunes, who recently revealed the show would be cancelled after its tenth season.
In September, Martin encouraged fans that “all good things must come to an end” as he spoke about the show’s departure on Loose Women.
He said via video link: “All good things have to come to an end, and I’m sure there are lots of people who aren’t fans of the show who think it’s terribly repetitive anyway. But we’re at huge pains not to repeat ourselves.
“I just think we’ve sort of done everything. I mean, it would be so great to just sort of carry on, but I don’t think we can keep it as good.”
Martin, who won the Best Actor gong at the TV Choice Awards for his role as Doc Martin, added: “We’ve got such a lovely cast, and it’s been 16 years.
We all sort of bump into each other’s children every two years and watch them growing up and flourishing, and just being down there [Cornwall, where the show is filmed] is heavenly.”
Martin and his wife Philippa Braithwaite, who is a producer, previously said in a statement: “We have loved making nine series of Doc Martin.
“When we launched the series in 2004 we could never have imagined how much our loyal viewers would take to the grumpy Doc like they have.
“The series has avid fans both in the UK and throughout the world and we are thrilled that Doc Martin has topped the ratings every time.
“However, after 16 years we now feel that the time has come to say goodbye to Portwenn so we will be making the 10th and final series in 2021 and we are very much looking forward to returning to Cornwall to film it.”
