The actor Derek Thompson’s departure from the BBC soap Casualty this weekend was truly shocking. Not because his character, Charlie Fairhead, diced with death before driving off at the end. It wasn’t even the fact that Casualty is still going strong after nearly four decades. It’s that Thompson had been there the whole time. That’s 38 years in the same job! William Roache has played Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow for even longer: he appeared in 1960’s episode one. Just imagine? I can’t.

When I signed my contract to start teaching at my current school last August, I totted up just how many times I had signed a full-time employee contract and realised this was my 17th. That’s 17 times someone has been foolhardy enough to hire me and 17 times I have turned up for my new role, with........

© iNews