Casualty legend Derek Thompson set to join huge drama following shock exit from BBC show after 37 years
CASUALTY legend Derek Thompson has been snapped up by another drama after quitting his long-running role as Charlie Fairhead.
Derek, 75, became BBC medical drama Casualty‘s longest-running star after playing the doctor for a whopping 37 years.
However, the star confirmed his exit after Casualty’s number of episodes was drastically slashed owing to concern regarding costs at the BBC.
The news of his exit left fans flawed as they reeled from losing the drama icon from screens.
But they will all be glad to know that Derek has already signed on to star in a returning drama with his scenes set to air in weeks.
The actor will be appearing in series two of the BBC’s latest breakthrough drams Blue Lights.
It marks a huge change for Derek who has only made limited appearances in programme outside of Casualty over the last 37 years.
He will play the character of retired police officer Robin Graham in five episodes of the second series of the programme.
The show has seen Derek return to his home town of Belfast for filming and he will be thrown in right at the deep end for the role.
His character will face up to his past when a trainee solicitor investigates a decades-old case that is set to cause a commotion for Robin in the present day.
Derek admitted he wasted no time in saying yes to signing up for the programme amid his Casualty exit.
He said: “I loved the first series of Blue Lights and thought, as did the majority of my friends and colleagues, that it was the best new TV series of last year.
“I was thrilled and excited [star jumps in the living room] when I got the invitation to take part in series two.
“I was born in Belfast and was equally excited [more star jumps] to travel over to work on the show and pleased to report, having read the scripts, that I’m sure the fans will love the second series every bit as much as the first.
“Greatly looking forward to it myself as I’m one of them.”
Derek’s exit was confirmed last year in an announcement that stunned fans.
Once the highest paid actor at the BBC, Derek was receiving between £350,000 and £400,000 for his role in 2017.
Last year, fans of the show were left gutted when it was revealed that the BBC would be temporarily taking the show off air after cutting the number of episodes produced per year.
A source told The Sun at the time: “Casualty peaked in the Noughties when it was on our screens on a Saturday night almost all year round, and that’s what many people have come to expect.
“The only year that saw a shorter series was in 2021 because of the pandemic, when all TV productions were severely affected.
“Now it seems the cost of living crisis could prove just as devastating.”
