Derek Thompson is a British actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, most notable for playing Charlie Fairhead in the long-running BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television medical drama series Casualty

Casualty (TV series)

Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...

.

Early life

Thompson has a twin sister, Elaine, who was born ten minutes after him. From the age of thirteen they combined to form the singing duo Elaine and Derek. They released one eponymously titled album, on the Parlophone

Parlophone

Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...

 label in 1961, before going on to appear in the feature film Gonks Go Beat

Gonks Go Beat

Gonks Go Beat is a 1965 British science fiction/musical fantasy film, directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and starring Kenneth Connor and Frank Thornton...

(1965).

Career

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Thompson became a regular face in BBC and ITV dramas. Appearances included Softly Softly, Play for Today

Play for Today

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...

, Harry's Game

Harry's Game

Harry's Game is a British television miniseries made by Yorkshire Television for ITV in 1982. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Seymour, which was published in 1975.The three-part serial starred Ray Lonnen as Capt...

and Rock Follies

Rock Follies

Rock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a comedy musical drama shown on British television in the mid 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...

. Prior to appearing in Casualty he had a recurring role, as DS Jimmy Fenton, in the ITV police drama The Gentle Touch

The Gentle Touch

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...

. In Bergerac

Bergerac (TV series)

Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show...

, series 2, episode 7' he played Wyatt, a crooked financier. He had minor film roles in Yanks

Yanks

Yanks is a 1979 John Schlesinger film, set in World War II in the village of Dobcross, in Greater Manchester, England. Starring Richard Gere, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Lisa Eichhorn, Rachel Roberts and Tony Melody....

(1979) and Breaking Glass

Breaking Glass

Breaking Glass is a 1980 British film starring Hazel O'Connor, Phil Daniels and Jonathan Pryce. The film was co-produced by Dodi Fayed and written and directed by Brian Gibson. The film was screened out of competition at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival....

(1980), and also played Jeff, Harold Shand's treacherous lieutenant, in The Long Good Friday

The Long Good Friday

The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film...

(1980). He also played a IRA hitman in the film Wild Geese II

Wild Geese II

Wild Geese II is a 1985 British action-thriller film, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also adapted from a novel...

(1985).

Casualty

Thompson began portraying Charlie Fairhead in Casualty in 1986. He is the only original cast member remaining on the show, although in 2004 his character went on a six-month sabbatical to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, which remains his only notable absence from the show in nearly a quarter of a century.

Apart from Casualty, he has also played Charlie in the spin-off shows Holby City

Holby City

Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...

and HolbyBlue

HolbyBlue

HolbyBlue was a British police drama series that aired on BBC One from 2007 to 2008. Produced by the BBC, Red Planet Pictures and Kudos for BBC One, it is a spin-off of the successful BBC One medical drama Holby City, itself a spin-off of the long-running series Casualty.The first series was...

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External links