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Derek Thompson bowed out of BBC One drama Casualty on Saturday night after 38 years in the role of Charlie Fairhead.
The Belfast-born actor, 75, is the medical drama’s longest-serving cast member and was part of the first episode in 1986.
In last Saturday’s episode, Charlie was stabbed by a patient and left fighting for his life.
Fans were left waiting on tenterhooks to find out whether he survived.
Thompson, who has acted in nearly 900 episodes of Casualty, announced he was leaving the show last May, saying: “The time has come for me to hang up Charlie’s scrubs.”
He added that his time on the show, as the senior charge nurse, had been “wonderful”.
Casualty is set in the fictional Holby City Hospital and tells the stories of the staff and patients of the hospital’s A&E Department.
In scenes aired on Saturday, a team was seen frantically starting treatment to save Charlie’s life after the attack.
He slipped in and out of consciousness, and had a flashback to the start of his career at the hospital.
In the flashback, a young version of Charlie – played by Jack Franklin – was seen arriving to work hungover, only to find a nail bomb had exploded and the emergency department was filling up with serious casualties.
Fans breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the episode, when it became clear that Charlie had survived the stabbing, with his colleagues applauding him out of the hospital following his treatment.
The episode ended with him leaving in the passenger seat of a yellow car, which had a sign saying “Just retired” displayed on the back.
Thompson described his exit storyline as “some of the best episodes of my career”.
“How [Casualty writer] Michelle Lipton wrote these episodes comes across like she’s written eight plays, taken from so many points of view,” he added. “I don’t think there’s another writer who could have done it.”
Viewers have watched Charlie experience plenty of drama over the years, including being shot in the chest with a handgun by a schizophrenic man and held hostage by an armed man and run over by an ambulance on his wedding day.
He also had a will-they-won’t-they relationship with fellow nurse Duffy, played by Cathy Shipton, which spanned 30 years.
The original cast of Casualty included Bernard Gallagher, George Harris, Brenda Fricker and Julia Watson, alongside Thompson.
Thompson is the only actor who has remained a constant presence throughout the series’ history.
Fans will not have to wait too long to see him back on screen, however.
The BBC recently announced that Thompson is to appear in a guest role in the second series of the Belfast-based drama Blue Lights, playing retired police officer Robin Graham.
Casualty was broadcast at 21.25 GMT on Saturday on BBC One and is available on the BBC iPlayer.
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