Confessions Of A Charmer

The actor on meeting Mick Jagger, turning down Chariots of Fire and a poodle puppy

- Jeremy Taylor

THERE’S nothing difficult about being charming, but you’ve either got it or you haven’t,’ says Nigel Havers. He may be 25 minutes late for our appointment, but it’s difficult not to warm to an actor who has mastered the art of the dashingly handsome charmer—and the occasional cad.

Still boasting his famously boyish good looks and thick, flopping hair, 66-year-old Mr Havers, recently heard on Today bemoaning his Christian name (no babies were christened Nigel in 2016) —‘I hate it’—has made a career from playing Englishmen who have an eye for the ladies. From a seducing conman in The Charmer to a male escort in Coronation Street, he’s ticked every box.

‘Kenneth More [the actor] once said to me that if you’re charming with women they ask you to bed, instead of you asking them,’ he explains. ‘I think I got it from my parents. It’s just a matter of being kind, generous and interested in other people.’

Mr Havers’ career has now spanned six decades, with major film roles in Chariots of Fire, A Passage to India and Empire of the Sun. His small-screen credits include Don’t Wait Up, Upstairs, Downstairs, Downton Abbey and A Horseman Riding By.

He’s the younger son of the late Baron Havers, Attorney General and briefly Lord Chancellor in Margaret Thatcher’s government; his aunt is Baroness Butler-Sloss, once the highest-ranking female judge in the country; his grandfather, Sir Cecil Havers, was also a prominent High Court judge.