
Acting
Derek Thompson
Born
1948-04-04 (78)
Place of birth
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Known for
Acting
Credits
26 titles
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 N…
Known for
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
6.2Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty
1986
6.4The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Brookside
1982
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
7.0Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.
Bergerac
1981
Film credits
1980s · 5 titles
7.2In 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.
The Long Good Friday
1980
6.9Breaking 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.
Breaking Glass
1980
4.8A group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin.
Wild Geese II
1985
NRGeoffrey 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 ransom to fund a major arms deal. Their two worlds collide when Frances and Clare are brutally snatched away to a bleak hideaway and taken hostage. Geoffrey initially wants to cave in to the kidnapper's demands “ but nothing is simple when a personal crisis plays out against the forces of political intrigue, high finance and with the eyes of the media on them.
The Price
1985
10.0A 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.
Fighting Back
1986
1970s · 4 titles
5.9During 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.
Yanks
1979
10.0A repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother.
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1978
NRIn the village of Danedyke St Mary the Reverend Septimus Treloar, a former Chief Inspector, investigates mysterious goings on linked to his church.
The Danedyke Mystery
1979
NRA man's life is turned upside down when he receives a mysterious photograph in the post.
A Photograph
1977
Undated · 2 titles
One hopeless romantic, a room full of twits, a dance troupe of MILBS, what could possibly go wrong?
Danny Boy
—
NRA gifted but troubled programmer, on the verge of creating breakthrough technology to restore lost memories, must race to save his Alzheimer's-afflicted father and repair a problematic home life before he loses everything at the hands of his ruthless CEO.
The Input Problem
—
Series credits
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
6.2Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty
1986
6.4The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Brookside
1982
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
7.0Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.
Bergerac
1981
7.6Follows rookie police officers working in Belfast, a city in which being a frontline response cop comes with unique pressures and dangers.
Blue Lights
2023
7.2Notable as the first British series to feature a female police officer (predating Juliet Bravo by four months), Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes raises her teenage son while navigating a male-dominated police force following the murder of her police commissioner husband.
The Gentle Touch
1980
7.1The 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.
Holby Blue
2007
6.8Rock 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 series was made with a very low budget for Thames Television, with a style inspired by fringe theatre. The series was a success, winning three BAFTA Awards and the soundtrack album reaching No.1 in the UK Charts.
Rock Follies
1976
6.7British undercover agent Harry Brown is sent to Northern Ireland to infiltrate the IRA to find (and terminate) the assassin of a British Cabinet Minister. Harry is alone, the army hasn't been told he is being put in place, his wife is fed up with him and his job, and his sole new friend, an Irish woman who falls for him, will be consumed by his relentless search for the assassin.
Harry's Game
1982
7.5English computer millionaire Geoffrey Carr and his wife have plans for a country house in Ireland. Irish terrorists have plans for the wealthy couple.
The Price
1985



