Victim spoilers to follow.
How do you say goodbye to a character who is the heart of a show?
It’s the question fans have been asking since Casualty confirmed the news of Charlie Fairhead’s departure last year. Having appeared in the long-running drama since it began 38 years ago, Charlie, played by Derek Thompson, has become part of Casualty’s framework, and there’s little he hasn’t seen or experienced. He survived being held at gunpoint, two heart attacks and the devastating death of his soulmate Duffy, to name a few. He was the cat with nine lives – until now it seemed.
This isn’t the first time Charlie has retired from the show either (he took breaks in 2004 and 2005), but the BBC has stated unequivocally that this would be his last departure.
So when he was stabbed, in what we knew would be his penultimate episode, it seemed like the writing was on the wall. There was only one way this was going to go, right?
Maybe. Maybe not.
In fact, Charlie ended up grateful, graceful – and most importantly – fit and well, in Saturday’s (March 16) highly anticipated episode, surviving the shock attack he suffered at the eleventh hour last week.
Stevie regained her confidence in time to realize that Charlie had an internal bleeding that had been missed in the previous scan and that this was the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of his recovery.
Flashback scenes had alerted us to the fact that Stevie and Charlie would cross paths in another decade, bringing both of their journeys to a poetic end in the “History of Violence” miniseries.
The interwoven ’80s flashbacks introduced us to a much younger Charlie as he recalled a memorable day early in his career while fighting for his life in the present.
This is also where we met Shirley (played by former EastEnders star Annette Badland), who was a head nurse at Charlie’s previous job before joining Holby.
Refreshingly, this allowed us to see that Charlie wasn’t always the indispensable, trustworthy diplomat we’ve come to know and love. As a child, he was stubborn, carefree and hungover at work, and Shirley was not impressed with him. However, she saw his potential and therefore did not accept Charlie’s later attempts at discharge when a patient they had tried so hard to help tragically died.
Shirley told Charlie that being angry was proof of how much he really cared, in moving words that later resonated when he said the same thing to Stevie.
Shirley also explained to Charlie that she was retiring because she finally felt like she had done enough, and urged him to hang in there until he felt the same way. In a tragic turn of events that gave viewers a tangible insight into where this story would ultimately go (if we hadn’t already guessed at this point), Charlie later discovered that Shirley had died quietly in the staff room, and never was able to reach her. the retirement she was so looking forward to.
And so, Charlie’s past with Shirley ultimately had a remarkable impact on his future.
Back in the present, Charlie, now miraculously fully recovered, told Stevie that he was retiring – soon and on his own terms. He was ready. The ED was ready. And maybe we were ready now too.
Charlie’s surviving death and riding off into the proverbial sunset in his yellow Beetle (another nod to his past) ended weeks of speculation that he was about to suffer the same grisly fate as so many beloved characters before him.
It’s almost become the status quo with a hyped exit, and the return of Charlie’s former friends Zoe and Josh for his swan song only seemed to confirm that (“I don’t want to spoil it for the fans,” said Sunetra Sarker on Zoe’s return) I’m just happy and proud to be part of his emotional final story.”)
In retrospect, perhaps the clues had been there all along. Thinking back to the initial announcement of Charlie’s departure, it was implied that Derek pitched this ending himself. This didn’t really fit into the story of killing his friendly alter ego forever in such a disgusting way.
Despite the last-minute interweaving of stories, the final block of episodes was also mainly Stevie’s. Charlie’s role in this only came about a few weeks ago and we’d be lying if we said it hadn’t often felt like a mad race to the finish.
But Charlie ultimately wanted to prove that there was good in the world; that was what he believed, and it is the legacy he will leave us. Death by violence would have contradicted all that.
Actually, we don’t have to worry at all. Charlie was never going to die, and any hints he might get were just a clever ploy to create an online maelstrom and get people talking, in a way that an earlier confirmation of his retirement probably wouldn’t been.
“When I first read the script, I didn’t have to think about it at all because they’re just great stories,” said Derek himself. “How Michelle Lipton wrote these episodes feels like she wrote eight plays, from so many perspectives. I don’t think there’s another writer who could have done it. I think my last two episodes are some of the best episodes of My career.”
They were. And most importantly, we left the episodes feeling nostalgic, happy and hopeful, rather than emotionally miserable like we were when Holby City murdered their own kingpin Jac Naylor.
Elinor Lawless, who plays Stevie, agreed.
Exclusively spoken against digital spy, She said: “It was the right exit. Something that Derek was really keen to show over the period we just saw was how Charlie’s work has changed for him and how the nature of the workplace has changed for him.
‘He’s under pressure. He finds confrontation more difficult. I think you get the idea of a natural retirement for someone who is ready for it. I’m really glad he got that.’
But what would a Casualty world look like without Charlie?
“The NHS is at the heart of the show and we have a unique foundation to tell a story about a national healthcare service that is completely unique to here,” Elinor said. “That’s something Derek really wants for the show.
“I think the legacy of Charlie will be that there is heart and there is care, and I think that’s something that they will certainly continue to try to maintain. But someone like Charlie isn’t just forgotten and disappears.”
She is right. He won’t do that. But while Charlie will forever remain in the fabric of the world he created in Casualty, the joyous nature of his departure has shown how the show can and will continue without him.
Victim sky on Saturday evenings on BBC One. The show is now being released episodes early on BBC iPlayer at 6am on the day of broadcast.
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