Casualty bosses ‘hoping Bradley Walsh’s son Barney will be new Charlie Fairhead’ after emotional exit

With Casualty’s longest-running actor Derek Thompson having quit the show, BBC bosses are said to hope Barney Walsh will fill the void.

Derek, who played Charlie Fairhead, announced he was leaving the medical drama in May last year and said: “The time has come for me to hang up Charlie’s scrubs.” He also added that his exit storyline as one of “the best episodes of my career”.

Charlie’s exit comes after claims Derek’s soap fate was sealed because his salary was too high to be justified following reports he earned between £349,999 and £399,999 a year.

Derek has starred in almost 900 episodes of Casualty and fans were convinced that Charlie was going to be killed off having been stabbed in his penultimate episode.

Barney has played Cameron Micklethwaite since March 2023

Barney has played Cameron Micklethwaite since March 2023
Luckily, Charlie survived having been saved by Stevie Nash, and later declared he would be retiring.

However, with Charlie’s departure comes a very big hole in the Casualty foundations – but BBC bosses reportedly hope to use Barney Walsh’s character, Cam Mickelthwaite, to fill the void.

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According to the Daily Mail, a BBC insider said: “Charlie was a bit of a rubbish nurse when he first arrived, as is Cam, which is why this makes it all such a lovely idea from the bosses.

“They think that turning Cam into the ‘face of the nurses’ in lieu of Charlie is a no-brainer. His popularity has soared so much since Gladiators so it would mean he would be given bigger storylines and he would be used more, to stop anyone else grabbing him.”

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Derek Thompson bowed out of the show after almost four decades

Derek Thompson bowed out of the show after almost four decades
Cam arrived at Holby City with three other student nurses, Jodie Whyte (Anna Chell), Rida Amaan (Sarah Seggari) and Ryan Firth (Eddie-Joe Robinson).

And some of Barney’s very first scenes were with legendary Derek. Talking to the Express at the Inside Soap Awards last year, Barney said: “Being a newcomer to Casualty, we haven’t been there relatively long to everyone else, so for Charlie to be a part of our first episode and to be a part of Charlie’s last episode is a massive, massive honour.

“To be able to be part of that it’s an historic moment, because that’s what it is really.”

Barney continued: “This [Casualty] is an incredible job to do because it’s so true and so real and we’re honouring the NHS, which is so important to me. So this is an incredible thing to be a part of.”