Derek Thompson (actor)

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

Early life[]

Thompson was born in Belfast and has a twin sister, Elaine Thompson. From their teenage years, they combined to form the singing duo Elaine and Derek. They recorded four albums and 15 EP's together. They sang in harmonies, and released one eponymously titled album, on the Parlophone label in 1961. They then formed folk trio Odin's People with Larry Johns, who recorded two singles in 1967. Derek appeared in the feature film Gonks Go Beat (1965)^[1]

Career[]

In the mid-1960s, Thompson worked as Stage Manager in the Nonentities Theatre in Kidderminster.^{[citation needed]} and in rep. In the 1970s he appeared in several productions at the National Theatre. 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 late 1970s and early 1980s 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 Hollywood 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 has currently played the role of Charlie for over 30 years, and is the only remaining character from the original cast. In 2004 his character went on a six-month sabbatical, which remains his most notable absence from the show. Currently, he is 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

A sufferer of dystonia, Thompson became patron of the Dystonia Society in 2006.^[4]

Theatre[]

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• 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

Selected filmography[]

References[]

External links[]

• Derek Thompson at IMDb
• "Holby – Derek Thompson". Retrieved 12 May 2017.