I just watched the movie after having seen all of the episodes of the television series. One thing that was interesting to me as an American was that the main character said more than once that he wasn't a doctor, he was an obstetrician. In the US, of course, an obstetrician is a doctor.
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I'm not sure about this but in the UK, they are more particular about specialists, such as obstetricians, who require more training, then GP's, or regular doctors. We in the US tend to call all MD's (someone with post-graduate training) "doctors" and only call them by their specialty if we are going to see them, not if we're simply addressing them. I'm only guessing here, but in the UK, they may only refer to someone as a doctor if the person has post-graduate training but is NOT a specialist.
Here's an article that may explain it (somewhat). I'm still confused!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Medicine
Don't get me wrong...
It might be unbelievable,
But let's not say so long
Yes, "doctor" in common parlance tends to refer to a GP, a jack-of-all-trades doctor who is the first line of defence: you go to see him first with any medical problem. He may then refer you to a specialist (either private or on the National Health Service) such as an obstetrician.
One other peculiarity: ordinary GPs take the title Doctor, but more senior specialists, especially surgeons, revert to the title Mister. It's a sort of inverted snobbery thing.
I'm not sure that ordinary GPs have a post-grad degree. They do longer training than for an ordinary BA/BSc degree, but I don't think it constitutes an MA/MSc/PhD post-grad degree. Which reminds me: PhDs also take the title Doctor, which causes great problems if a PhD introduces himself as Dr X at a party and people starting telling him all their medical problems :-)
Thanks for the clarification, martinu-2! I like that term "inverted snobbery". It explains a lot, though I still don't understand why they would do that. It also gives a double meaning to the many times Doc Martin feels obliged to say "I'm not a doctor.", thus confusing people even more. :D As you wrote:
PhDs also take the title Doctor, which causes great problems if a PhD introduces himself as Dr X at a party and people starting telling him all their medical problems :-)