Derek Martin obituary

Derek Martin obituary

Actor who played Charlie Slater in EastEnders and tough guy roles in TV shows including Law and Order and King & Castle The actor Derek Martin, who has died after a short illness aged 92, played Charlie, the level-headed patriarch of the Slater family, in the BBC TV soap opera EastEnders for more than a decade. Charlie, a widowed cabbie, arrived in the fictional Albert Square in 2000 with four of his five daughters, Lynne, Kat, Little Mo (Maureen) and Zoe, and his mother-in-law, Mo Harris. The role was in sharp contrast to the tough guys played by Martin earlier in his television career. But the usually mild-mannered Charlie’s devotion to his daughters could lead him to explode in anger, as he did on discovering that Kat (played by Jessie Wallace) was Zoe’s biological mother, having become pregnant after being raped by her uncle, Charlie’s brother Harry (Michael Elphick), when she was 13 – a secret known only by Kat and her late mother, Viv. When Charlie found out, he headed straight to the Queen Vic pub and attacked Harry, with locals having to restrain him. He also twice snapped in defence of Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth), and this led to a three-month prison sentence for Charlie. Continue reading...

Ronald Araújo returns from mental health break to see Barça over Super Cup line | Sid Lowe

Ronald Araújo returns from mental health break to see Barça over Super Cup line | Sid Lowe

For Barcelona’s Uruguayan defender, the 3-2 victory over Real Madrid in the Super Cup wasn’t just about the title Not many people saw the exact moment Ronald Araújo lifted the Super Cup to the sky and a weight from his mind but the men that matter most did: they were right there, standing by him. They had welcomed him back, 47 days later and in a final, lifted him up towards the light, and handed him the captain’s armband. Now, after they had beaten Real Madrid 3-2 together, they handed him the captain’s responsibility and a captain’s honour, inviting him to raise the trophy for all of them. Which was when someone walked in front of the camera, went whoops and walked back again . By the time the shadow left the screen, Araújo was holding with the cup over his head, teammates roaring around him, and the Real Madrid players who stayed to watch had turned down the tunnel. They had been close to trading places. In a final of sudden storms – three clear chances and a goal in 2min 54sec after half an hour, three goals in 3min 33sec of first half added time, three golden opportunities saved in 10 second-half minutes – theirs had been the last. Some 134 seconds passed between Marcus Rashford smashing wide and two glimpses of salvation appearing before Madrid but they couldn’t grasp either, on 95.04 and 96.42. So Barcelona had first trophy of the season. Continue reading...