
Derek Thompson
Actor · b. 1948 · Belfast, Northern Ireland
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.
Series12
TV5.8SoapDramaDrama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999 · 48 votes
TV6.2DramaSoapDrama 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 · 88 votes
TV6.2SoapDramaThe ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Brookside
1982 · 20 votes
TV7.1ComedyDramaRoguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979 · 30 votes
TV7.4CrimeDramaA 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 · 177 votes
TV7.0DramaJim 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 · 25 votes
TV7.6CrimeDramaFollows rookie police officers working in Belfast, a city in which being a frontline response cop comes with unique pressures and dangers.
Blue Lights
2023 · 133 votes
TV7.2CrimeDramaNotable 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 · 8 votes
TV6.8DramaRock 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 · 5 votes
TV7.1DramaThe 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 votes
TV6.7CrimeDramaBritish 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 · 14 votes
TV7.5DramaEnglish 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 · 2 votes
Movies11
Movie7.2CrimeThrillerIn 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 · 450 votes
Movie5.9RomanceDramaDuring 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 · 67 votes
Movie4.8ActionThrillerA group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin.
Wild Geese II
1985 · 36 votes
Movie6.9MusicDramaBreaking 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 · 35 votes
Movie6.2ThrillerCrimeBelfast, 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.
Resurrection Man
1998 · 13 votes
Movie10.0DramaTV MovieA repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother.
Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1978 · 1 votes
MovieThrillerDramaGeoffrey 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
Movie3.8MusicComedyBizarre 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.
Gonks Go Beat
1965 · 6 votes
MoviePenny 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.
Movie10.0DramaA 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 · 1 votes
MovieDramaHorrorA man's life is turned upside down when he receives a mysterious photograph in the post.
A Photograph
1977