Before her first “Blue Bloods” appearance in 2016 as British cop Sloane Thompson, Alex Kingston was already a regular guest actor on other popular TV shows. Between 2008 and 2015, she appeared on 15 “Doctor Who” episodes in one of her longest-running gigs. In the wake of that “Blue Bloods” debut, she also kicked off what became a career highlight as a part of the main cast of the British TV series “A Discovery of Witches,” totaling 20 episodes across three seasons.
Fans of Kingston’s part on “Blue Bloods” may be surprised to learn that she only appears on two episodes of the CBS cop show. Her debut is on Season 6, Episode 17; Sloane visits her old friend, Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), alongside her British cop colleagues studying American law enforcement. She returns on Season 12, Episode 9. In that episode, Frank runs into Sloane again in New York, and a romantic spark is reignited, complicating Frank’s decision to look into the possibility that Sloan is connected to a crime he’s investigating. By the episode’s conclusion, this ruins any chance of a relationship with Sloane, seemingly bringing their characters’ dynamic to a definitive end.
Blue Bloods fans who enjoyed Alex Kingston as Sloane Thompson might want to watch ER
The TV role Alex Kingston is most closely associated with remains trauma surgeon Elizabeth Corday on NBC’s landmark medical drama “ER.” Like Sloane Thompson, Corday is British and works in the United States. “ER” is a behemoth of a TV series, and Kingston was a part of it for a sizable portion of its run. Her debut episode was the Season 4 premiere, which first aired in 1997. She remained a main cast member through the start of Season 11 in 2004 and reprised her part alongside some other returning actors in Season 15, leading into the series finale.
In total, Kingston plays Corday on 160 episodes of “ER.” Since her “Blue Bloods” tenure only amounts to two episodes, fans of her acting work who aren’t yet familiar with “ER” can turn to the medical drama for plenty more from Kingston in an altogether similar context, playing a doctor rather than a cop.