Nigel Havers

Nigel Allan Havers  is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up. He portrayed the role of Lewis Archer in Coronation Street from 2009 to 2010. He returned to the role in 2012.

Nigel Havers was born in London, and is the younger son of Michael Havers (later Baron Havers), who was a barrister known for successfully defending Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on drug charges in 1967 and being chief-prosecutor of Peter Sutcliffe (popularly known as the Yorkshire Ripper) in 1981, becoming Lord Chancellor in the Conservative Government in 1987. His paternal aunt, the Baroness Butler-Sloss, was the first woman to be elevated to the Court of Appeal and subsequently the first woman appointed to head the Family Division of the High Court. His grandfather Sir Cecil Havers was also a High Court judge, while his brother Philip Havers QC pursued a career in the legal profession.

Havers was educated at the Arts Educational School, an independent school in London, opting against the Eton education traditional to his family (except his father, who was educated at Westminster School), because he thought thatfagging "sounded frightful"

Havers's first acting job was in the radio series Mrs Dale's Diary and he subsequently went onto working for the Prospect Theatre Company. After his theatre work, Havers slid into a period of acting unemployment, during which time he worked for a wine merchant.

In 1975 Havers's career began to pick up with an appearance in Upstairs, Downstairs, appearing in one of the series' last episodes, "Joke Over" as Peter Dinmont, one of Georgina's Lesley-Anne Down roaring twenties "party" friends. Dinmont is in the Rolls Royce when Georgina accidentally kills a farmer on a bicycle. Dinmont refuses to testify on Georgina's behalf at a preliminary trial, as he was passed out drunk in the backseat and did not witness the accident.

His first film appearance was a small part in Pope Joan (1972), but his first major success came with the leading role in a BBC dramatisation of Nicholas Nickleby (1977), closely followed by another BBC drama serial, A Horseman Riding By. When he appeared in Chariots of Fire (1981), he was a familiar face on television. Despite appearing in such films as A Passage to India (1984) and Empire of the Sun (1987), he never made a name for himself as a film star, but has continued in a succession of starring roles on television. He co-starred for several years in the 1980s BBC sitcom Don't Wait Up alongside Tony Britton. He also starred in The Little Princess in 1986 with Maureen Lipman, which won him a dedicated audience. He is also widely recognised in the Lloyds Bank television commercials. In 2009 he appeared in the U.S. television drama Brothers & Sisters, and the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. In February 2010, he appeared in the British soap (broadcast on the ITV network) Coronation Street playing the charming male escort Lewis Archer, who woos Audrey Roberts.

In November 2010 Havers became a contestant on the tenth series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which started on 14 November 2010. A week after the first episode of the series was aired, it emerged on ITV morning showDayBreak, that Nigel Havers had walked from the jungle.

Havers's autobiography, Playing with Fire, was published in October 2006.

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