Derek Thompson
Birthday: Born in 1948-04-04 in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Deathday: Alive
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 for 37 years, from its first episode in 1986 to his final episode in 2024. In 2017, it was revealed that this role has made Thompson the highest paid actor within the BBC with a salary of £350,000-£399,000 per annum. Following his exit from the show, Thompson joined the cast of hit Northern Irish police drama Blue Lights for its second season. Prior to the lead role in Casualty he starred in several films including The Long Good Friday, TV series such as Harry's Game and The Gentle Touch and several celebrated stints at The National Theatre. As a musician, he was also part of a folk duo with his twin sister Elaine in the 1960s. He married the actress Dee Sadler in 1989, having met her filming an episode of Casualty in 1987. Together they have one son, Charlie. He has another son from his previous marriage to his first wife Christine.
TV Credits
Casualty
Character: Charlie Fairhead
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives....
Brookside
Character:
The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool....
Bergerac
Character: Wyatt
Bergerac is a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in Le Bureau des Étrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police....
The Gentle Touch
Character: Detective Sergeant Jimmy Fenton
The Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months....
Holby Blue
Character: Charlie Fairhead
The police force at Holby South is tasked with the toughest job yet. Not only are they fighting the usual crime with drug offenders and gang members, but today they are faced with the threat of terrorism on their own soil. A Spin off from Holby City and Casualty....
Rock Follies
Character:
Rock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a musical drama shown on British television in the 1970s. The storyline, over 12 episodes and two series, followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the "Little Ladies" as they struggled for recognition and success. The series starred Rula Lenska, Charlotte Cornwell and Julie Covington as the Little Ladies, with support from Emlyn Price, Beth Porter, Sue Jones-Davies, Stephen Moore and Little Nell among others. The ser...
Minder
Character: Harry
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley....
Holby City
Character: Charlie Fairhead
Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients....
Harry's Game
Character: Billy Downes
A British Cabinet Minister is gunned down outside his home in London by a member of the Provisional IRA. Security protocols are activated, but the assassin evades them and successfully escapes to Belfast. In the aftermath of the incident, rash decisions are made by politicians seeking revenge, and the Ministry of Defence responds by sending Captain Harry Brown (Ray Lonnen) - a special forces soldier who has done deep cover work in hostile territory - into the Falls Road area of Belfast, notoriou...
Blue Lights
Character: Robin Graham
Follows rookie police officers working in Belfast, a city in which being a frontline response cop comes with unique pressures and dangers....
The Price
Character: Frank Crossan
English computer millionaire Geoffrey Carr and his wife have plans for a country house in Ireland. Irish terrorists have plans for the wealthy couple....
Movie Credits
Yanks
Character: Ken
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times....
The Long Good Friday
Character: Jeff
In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion....
Wild Geese II
Character: Hourigan
A group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin....
Resurrection Man
Character: Herbie Ferguson
Belfast, in 1970s. Victor Kelly is a young protestant man who hates the Catholics so much that one night he begins to brutally murder them. A reporter soon tries to uncover the murder and obtained prestige for himself, while Victor sinks deeper into madness....
Gonks Go Beat
Character: Singer (Derek and Elaine)
Bizarre sixties fable resembling Romeo and Juliet, but instead of Montagues and Capulets, there are two musical communities, one who like rock and roll and one who like ballads, who become reunited through the love between a couple who love across their grouping. It features little furry puppets called Gonks....
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Character: Skinner
A repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother....
The Danedyke Mystery
Character: Tom Richards
In the village of Danedyke St Mary the Reverend Septimus Treloar, a former Chief Inspector, investigates mysterious goings on linked to his church....
The Price
Character: Frank Crossan
Geoffrey Carr is a wealthy, key player in Britain's emerging computer industry, and newly married to Frances , a much younger woman, with wilful daughter Clare from a previous marriage. He'll do anything to make them happy, including stretching his finances to buy a Georgian estate in County Wicklow, where Frances grew up. Frank Crossan is an Irish Republican hitman on the run from British authorities. Seeking refuge with old girlfriend Kate, he creates a plan to kidnap a wealthy Brit for a ran...
Breaking Glass
Character: Andy
Breaking Glass is the story of punk singer Kate and her meteoric rise to stardom. Starting out in the rock pubs of London, Kate, assisted by her manager Danny, becomes a huge star overnight. Once at the top the pressure is immense as Kate's band are squeezed out and she is left to cope alone in the spotlight....
Fighting Back
Character: Bruce Curran
A single mother returns to her home town after fifteen years of unhappy marriage and fights to make a better life for herself and her children....
Penny From Heaven
Character: Homeless Man
Penny is dead. She can't really remember how it happened. All she knows is she has to save the souls of 1000 people on the verge of suicide before she can get her wings and become a fully fledged angel....
A Photograph
Character: Chet
A man's life is turned upside down when he receives a mysterious photograph in the post....