He didn’t set out to become Britain’s idea of a familiar face. He certainly didn’t plan on being shouted at in pubs as “Gary!” for the rest of his natural life. Yet here we are.

Most people saw Martin Clunes initially in the mid-1990s, when Men Behaving Badly exploded onto television screens like a dropped kebab at closing time. Gary Strang was loud, laddish, selfish, occasionally tender, and very, very British. He drank too much, said too much, and behaved like a man-child with a sofa and opinions. For better or worse, he struck a nerve. Britain recognised itself and laughed, sometimes through gritted teeth.

The strange thing was this: people assumed Gary was Martin. He wasn’t. Martin was to prove how realistic he was in his acting acting career but ‘Gary’ followed him everywhere, a pint in one hand and a grin in the other. He could have just been typecast to play this type of character it probably at the time may have paid the bills and given him stardom and freedom as a rebellious male character but Martin Clunes was very diverse in roles and didn’t want to stay in the pub forever.

Then came The Booze Cruise. Same alcohol, different tone. Where Men Behaving Badly was laddish anarchy, The Booze Cruise was middle-aged discontent floating gently through European waters. It was about marriages creaking, dreams shrinking, and men realising that life hadn’t quite turned out as advertised. Comedy, yes, but with a hangover of truth. That was the turning point for me. He could feel it. The jokes were still there, but something deeper was knocking.

Martin has always proved comedy and pathos and  are but neighbours on stage and television, sharing a fence. Step over it carefully and you find something human.

That belief took him to playing the lead role in Goodbye, Mr Chips, a role previouly played by both acclaimed actors Robert Donal and Peter O’Toole . Here he played a shy, emotionally locked schoolteacher whose life unfolds through quiet duty rather than grand gestures was a long way from Gary Strang’s beer-soaked sofa. It required stillness, restraint, and trust. No jokes to hide behind. Just a man, his regrets, and the slow passage of time. It remains one of the roles I’m proudest of, precisely because it asked him to be smaller, not bigger. He’s also played darker characters such as the disgraced news anchor Huw Edwards and even acid bath murderer Haigh

Recently hes become unexpectedly very popular when hosting BBC’s “Have I Got News For You” comedy current affairs quiz proving how his proving that being himself on television with a raised eyebrow, a well-timed pause, and the confidence to let the joke land or die in public.

Hosting it he deftly delivers the weekly news comically into Britain’s living rooms and unlike his Gary character is trusted not to knock over the furniture, or shout, but is even funnier by listening and occasionally drop a dry remark like a pebble into water.

Over time, the nation decided he was safe company. Dependable. Familiar without being dull. The man who once embodied laddish excess now turned up to gently referee politicians, comics, and chaos. Life has a sense of humour like that.

Looking back, his career doesn’t feel like a reinvention. It feels like revealing different rooms in the same house. Comedy first, then melancholy, then warmth, then observation. he never abandoned humour. As he’s got older, he proves he can deliver this humour through a well spoken if  curmudgeon-like  character such as the popular ITV “Doc Martin”.

If Martin Clunes is a national treasure its because Britain has adopted him now as a favourite, which his actimg proves he rightfully deserves. As his characters grow quieter they’ve learnt  to laugh and when to listen. On screen and in person he still enjoys a good joke, but proves he can play a hell raising ‘bloke’ as well as detectives, doctors, serial killers and disgraced TV newsreaders effortlessly.

Martin Clunes is not bad for a bloke who started out spilling beer on a sofa.