Derek Martin, the actor best known for playing Charlie Slater in EastEnders, has died aged 92.
Derek first appeared on the BBC soap's fictional Albert Square in 2000. A regular cast member until 2011, he featured in a number of major storylines. Derek then made several guest appearances on the programme until his character suffered a fatal heart attack in 2016.
Read the BBC news article announcing Derek's death.
Remembering Eldorado’s Alex Morris
Before he became a household name in EastEnders, Derek spent a significant stretch of 1993 in sunny Los Barcos, appearing in 40 episodes of Eldorado as Alex Morris, a role many viewers may have forgotten.
Alex Morris arrived in Eldorado as a quietly dangerous presence: the head of an unnamed criminal organisation whose operations even reached into the lives of some residents. One of his employees was none other than Marcus Tandy, placing Alex at the centre of some of the show’s most intriguing undercurrents.
Yet Alex wasn’t just a villainous figure, he was also the former boyfriend and complicated love interest of Trish Valentine, adding emotional depth to his storyline and giving Derek space to show the layered, grounded performances he would later become famous for.
Derek’s time on Eldorado showcased the qualities that defined his long career: authenticity, grit, and a natural ability to play characters who felt lived‑in and real. Though his later role as Charlie Slater would eclipse much of his earlier work in the public memory, Eldorado fans remember Alex Morris as a key part of the show’s tapestry - a reminder of the series’ ambition to blend sun‑drenched escapism with darker, more dramatic threads near the end of its run.
Derek went on to decades of success across British television, with shows such as Doctor Who, Z-Cars, The Sweeney, Law & Order and Hart to Hart. But his stint in Los Barcos remains a fascinating chapter in his career, and a delightful surprise for EastEnders viewers who may never have realised where they’d seen him before.
Autobiography from 2010
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