Casualty’s longest appearing star will bid a tearful farewell to Holby City Hospital on Saturday night, after a whopping 37 years on the hospital drama. 

Actor Derek Thompson, 75, has played emergency department nurse Charlie Fairhead for nearly four decades, after joining the soap in the eighties.  

However, after the programme’s episodes were dramatically reduced due to costs at the BBC, the star has confirmed he’s heading for pastures new. 

Derek will be featured in the second series of the BBC’s hit drama Blue Lights, returning to his hometown of Belfast.

37 years young! Charlie Fairhead aka actor Derek Thompson has been an A&E nurse at Holby City Hospital on Casualty since 1986 – but after 900 episodes, he’s hanging up his uniform

Discussing his departure, Derek said: ‘The time has come for me to hang up Charlie’s scrubs after the most wonderful 37 years.’ 

He continued: ‘Charlie Fairhead was inspired by a real nurse – Pete Salt.

‘Together with the writers and producers, I have tried to bring to Charlie the compassion, kindness, heroism and sound judgment that we all see and love in Pete and I want to say thanks to Pete and everyone else over that time who has inspired me in bringing this character to life.’

During his time in A&E at fictional Holby City, also the setting for the spin-off with the same name, Charlie has seen his fair share of blood and resus attempts but he’s also seen more than a few jobbing actors on their way to global stardom. 

Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the famous names Thompson has worked with through the decades, including Orlando Bloom, Kate Winslet, Tom Hiddleston…

KATE WINSLET: PLAYED A TEEN BABYSITTER IN 1993

From Holby City Hospital to the Oscars: Kate Winslet pictured starring in the show in 1993. Right: Winslet at the Net-a-Porter Incredible Women’s Dinner at London’s V&A on March 5th

Big break: Kate Winslet’s character is given bad news by Derek Thompson, who has played Charlie for 37 years, in this 1993 episode

Now a fully fledged British acting icon, Kate Winslet had a bit-part role in Casualty in 1993 – when she was just 18…and it set her firmly on the road to stardom. A year later, she would make her big screen debut in Heavenly Creatures. 

The, 48-year-old once said she never expected her career to soar, revealing she only anticipated doing the odd play or appearing in episodes of the BBC medical drama.

In 2016, she said: ‘My dad was an actor, and my older sister is an actress, and so I very much remember thinking, “Well, of course I’ll do that as well.” 

‘But I never imagined myself as an actor who would be in films. I always only thought of myself being in a play or a musical and maybe the odd episode of Casualty.’

The actor starred as a domestic violence victim in the show, with the episode seeing her teenage boyfriend turning violent when his parents left the young couple to babysit for his little sister.  

MINNIE DRIVER: TOOK ON THE ROLE OF HIV PATIENT ZENA IN 1991

Minnie Driver had a small part in Casualty in the early stages of her acting career. The star has carved out a Hollywood career since

Actress Minnie Driver cemented her rise to fame playing Skylar in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which earned her an Academy Award nomination – but long before that, she was a head injury patient named Zena at Holby City Hospital. 

Appearing in an episode of Casualty called The Last Word in 1991, Minnie was fresh out of drama school and racking up experience with small parts, with other roles including being cast in The House of Elliot and Lovejoy. 

Alongside a bleeding forehead, Zena also reveals she has HIV, with Charlie concerned about the risks of treating her. 

Two years later a movie debut came via Circle of Friends…and put her firmly on her way to bigger film roles, including Good Will Hunting. 

ORLANDO BLOOM: PLAYED A BUILDER CALLED NOEL FOR THREE EPISODES

Orlando Bloom starred in a 1996 episode called ‘Another Day In Paradise’ before going on to become a star in Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean

Not just a one-off appearance, Orlando Bloom starred in three episodes between 1994 and 1996. 

The fresh-faced young actor – just 17 at the time – starred as a troubled builder called Noel Harrison who was admitted after self-harming. 

Now 47 and married to Katy Perry, Bloom remains one of Britain’s biggest film stars, with roles in Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean propelling him to A-list status. 

TOM HIDDLESTON: STARRED AS AN ACCIDENT-PRONE ROCK CLIMBER IN 2007

In 2007 The Night Manager’s Tom Hiddleston appeared as a rock climber who accidentally knocked a woman off a balcony when he abseiled down her building

Now 43, and famous for his recent role as Loki as well as starring in Thor and The Night Manager  – and also being Taylor Swift’s one-time beau – Hiddleston has seen his career soar in recent decades. 

A more humble TV outing came via a 2007 episode of Casualty, where he played a rock climber who accidentally knocked a woman off a balcony when he abseiled down her building.

DAVID WALLIAMS: STARRED AS A CHARACTER CALLED JON FIELDING IN 2003 

A bespectacled David Walliams appeared in an episode called Love Hurts in 2003

Before becoming a famous comedian and children’s author, David Walliams was a jobbing actor and appeared in an episode of Casualty in 2003 – the same year his controversial sketch show Little Britain also launched

In a 2003 episode of the long-running soap drama, entitled Love Hurts, David Walliams appeared as a character called Jon Fielding. 

The same year, his controversial Little Britain comedy series with Matt Lucas aired on BBC3, before getting a BBC One slot in 2006. 

Walliams has since become one of the country’s best-selling children’s authors, with titles such as Gangsta Granny, The World’s Worst series and Billionaire Boy.    

In 2012, he joined Britain’s Got Talent, but last year was replaced by Bruno Tonioli after negative comments he’d made about contestants emerged. 

MARTIN FREEMAN: PLAYED A STAB VICTIM IN 1998

Hobbit actor Martin Freeman was a stab victim in 1998. He’s gone on to appear in a host of blockbuster films

Long before Love Actually The Hobbit, Sherlock and even The Office, Martin Freeman turned up in a 1998 episode of Casualty, when he was in his mid twenties.

The now 52-year-old played Ricky Beck in episode eight of series 13, entitled ‘She Loved the Rain’, and played the victim of a violent facial stabbing.

RAY WINSTONE

Already in his 40s, Ray Winstone, now 67, played Terry Brennan, a prison inmate in a 1999 episode called Heartbreak Hotel

Acting legend Ray Winstone appeared as hard man Terry Brennan in an episode entitled Heartbreak Hotel in series nine of the show in 1999. 

The Sexy Beast star, now 67, was 42 when he played the role, with his acting career not quite yet in A-list territory. There was drama galore though, Terry appears in A&E twice in one episode, including a scene where he collapses in Holby City Hospital with a knife wound to the chest.