Martin Clunes left some viewers unconvinced when he attempted to master a Scottish accent in new drama Arthur And George.

The Doc Martin actor, 53, plays Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the three-part ITV series, which made its debut last night.

But his attempt at delivering the novelist’s Edinburgh accent left some unimpressed, with many saying that his brogue kept changing in the new biopic.

Others defended the star:

The comments came after the Men Behaving Badly star admitted that he was daunted by the role and that he used a dialect coach to work on his Edinburgh accent.

“Conan Doyle is a very famous Scotsman so I had to speak with an authentic Scottish accent,” he previously said. “I was terrified at the thought of playing him.”

Arthur And George is adapted from Julian Barnes’ book and tells the story of the novelist’s attempt to clear the name of George Edalji, who was wrongly convicted of a crime in the 1800s.