Derek Thompson (actor)

Derek Thompson (born 4 April 1948) is a Northern Irish actor. He is known for playing Charlie Fairhead in the long-running BBC television medical drama series Casualty, playing the role since the series' inception in 1986, until his departure 38 years later in 2024, and his performance as Jeff in the gangster film The Long Good Friday.

Early life
Thompson was born in and is from Belfast, Northern Ireland and has a twin sister, Elaine Johns (née Thompson). During their teenage years, they combined to form the singing duo Elaine and Derek. They recorded four albums and 15 EPs together, singing in harmonies, and released one eponymously titled album on the Parlophone label in 1961. They then formed the folk trio Odin's People with Larry Johns, and recorded two singles in 1967. Derek appeared in the feature film Gonks Go Beat (1965).

Career
In the mid-1960s, Thompson worked as Stage Manager in the Nonentities Theatre in Kidderminster.

From 1976 he appeared in many early productions at the National Theatre, London's new South Bank home.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Thompson became a regular face in BBC and ITV dramas. Appearances included Softly Softly, Play for Today, and Rock Follies of 77. He got a big break in Harry's Game, where he played the lead IRA gunman on the run following the assassination of a government minister. Later he played another IRA hitman in the TV series The Price and for a British mercenary gang in the Wild Geese II, both filmed in 1985.

During the same period, Thompson had minor film roles in Yanks (1979) and Breaking Glass (1980), and also played Jeff, Harold Shand's lieutenant, in the box office hit movie The Long Good Friday. Before he appeared in Casualty, he had a recurring role, as DS Jimmy Fenton, in the ITV police drama The Gentle Touch and a minor role as William Thurley in Channel 4's Brookside in 1983.

Casualty
Thompson began portraying Charlie Fairhead in Casualty in 1986. The following year he met his future wife, Dee Sadler, an actress playing the role of Maggie in an episode of the show's second series, a potholer who had to be rescued from a cave before hospitalisation. Thompson played the role of Charlie for over 30 years, and was the last remaining character from the original cast until his departure on 16 March 2024. In 2004 his character went on a six-month sabbatical, which remains his most notable absence from the show. In his latter years with the programme, he was allowed a few months off from filming per year. Apart from Casualty, he has also played Charlie in the spin-off shows Holby City and HolbyBlue. It was revealed in July 2017, that Thompson was the BBC's highest-paid actor, earning between £350,000 and £400,000 over the last financial year. In 2023, it was announced that after 38 years, Thompson would be leaving Casualty; his exit aired in March 2024, at the conclusion of a special two-part episode.

Family
As of 2010, Thompson and his wife, Dee, lived in a rented flat in Bristol and also own a house in Brixton. The couple have a son, who appeared as a baby in one 1990 episode of Casualty as the son of regular character Duffy, and he also has an older son by a previous marriage to Christine, a theatre director.

A sufferer of dystonia, Thompson became patron of the Dystonia Society in 2006.

Theatre
In London between 1975 and 1985, mainly for the National Theatre, but also at the Garrick, Half Moon and Old Vic theatres.
 * Strawberry Fields
 * WC/PC
 * The Bells of Hell
 * The Garden of England
 * Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
 * The Cherry Orchard
 * The Passion
 * Dispatches
 * The Mysteries
 * Weapons of Happiness
 * Lavender Blue
 * Has Washington Legs
 * School for Scandal