Latest news with #Havers
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Post your questions for Nigel Havers
Nigel Havers has forged a career playing quintessential, charming, good-looking, well-educated Englishmen. The younger son of one-time Lord Chancellor Sir Michael Havers, Havers Jr opted against Eton, moving into theatre, radio and briefly training as a wine merchant, before finding fame as the lead of the 1977 BBC adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, and opposite Bob Hoskins in 1978 Dennis Potter BBC musical drama, Pennies from Heaven. By the time he was cast in 1981's Chariots of Fire, Havers was a familiar face on British television. Here, he got to play his first lord – Cambridge student Lord Andrew Lindsay – and run, barefooted and in slow motion, across West Sands beach in St Andrews, earning him a Bafta nomination in the process. Roles soon followed as the public school-educated but class-conscious Ronnie Heaslop in 1984 epic period drama A Passage to India, and as father figure Dr Rawlins in Steven Spielberg's 1987 war film Empire of the Sun. He also plays David Niven in 2004's The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Havers has spent the most recent part of his career on television, continuing the well-educated/peerage theme. His roles as lords (we count four) include Lord Hepworth in Downton Abbey and his portrayal of the beaten-down-by-the-bad-guys Lord Whitecroft in Guy Ritchie's 2024 Netflix series, The Gentleman – one of his most 'is it Nigel or is he acting?' parts to date. As doctors (we count five), he most famously played Dr Tom Latimer in all six series of the 80s BBC sitcom Don't Wait Up, and as Dr Jonathan Paige in ITV medical drama, Dangerfield. This February, he played his own grandfather, Sir Cecil Havers QC, in ITV drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. He was gentleman escort Lewis Archer in Coronation Street for a decade. And you might also have caught him on stage in Art and Noel Coward comedy Private Lives, and in panto in Dick Whittington, Aladdin, Jack and The Beanstalk or more. With a penchant for everything from the gee-gees to the ladies to, erm, going to the tip on a Sunday, there's plenty to ask Havers as he sits for the Guardian reader interview. He's certainly in the mood to chat, as he's currently halfway through his first ever live tour – Nigel Havers Talking Bollocks – where he promises to … well, the clue seems to be in the title. But is he really Too Posh to be Privileged, like those adverts he did in the 2000s? Having played so many lords and sirs, is he disappointed he hasn't been made one himself yet? Does he have Chariots of Fire in his headphones when he goes for a jog? And who was his favourite co-barger in Celebrity Carry On Barging – Simon Callow, Lorraine Chase or Debbie McGee? Find out by getting your questions in by 6pm Tuesday 22 April and reading his answers online and in Film&Music on Friday 25 April. Nigel Havers Talking Bollocks is at Harrogate Royal Hall 25 April, Liverpool Playhouse 26 April, and Shrewsbury theatre Severn 21 May
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
My grandfather sentenced last woman hanged in UK – she should be pardoned, says Nigel Havers
Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, should be pardoned, says actor Nigel Havers. The Coronation Street star whose grandfather, the High Court judge Sir Cecil Havers, sentenced Ruth Ellis to death in 1955 for shooting dead her lover David Blakely, called for a posthumous pardon. Havers, who is playing his grandfather in a new ITV drama A Cruel Truth: The Ruth Ellis Story, revealed Sir Cecil was 'extremely upset' by the case after a jury convicted her of murder, which came with a mandatory death penalty. Havers added that his grandfather had always believed it had been a crime of passion, which could have resulted in a sentence for manslaughter and would have avoided the death penalty. Descendents of Ellis, who was in an abusive relationship with Mr Blakely at the time, argue that she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and are pushing for a posthumous pardon. Speaking to the BBC, Havers agreed with demands to pardon Ellis. 'I love that. Of course I would, that would be my choice, too. I would love that to happen,' he said. Describing filming his scenes for the drama, he said: 'I burst into tears [after filming]. I felt very sorry for my grandfather because he was extremely upset. He wrote a letter to the home secretary at the time and said this woman must not be hanged and the home secretary ignored it.' Elllis was a nightclub hostess and shot Mr Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead. The jury returned a verdict of premeditated murder in just 20 minutes and, as a result, it fell to Sir Cecil to don the black cap and pass down a sentence of capital punishment. She was hanged at HMP Holloway on July 13 1955. Ellis's case led to a petition with 50,000 signatures being sent to the Home Office for clemency, but none was granted. Significant media attention made her execution a high profile event, which was a significant driver to ending capital punishment in the UK. Family tragedy followed, with Ellis's ex-husband suicide in 1958 and her son, Andy, who was just 10 when his mother died, taking his own life in 1982 while in his twenties. Sir Cecil had sent money to Ellis's son every year from her death until the judges's own in 1977, Havers told the BBC. 'As far as my aunt is concerned, what she told me was that he financed one of the children, he supported them, that's how strong he felt,' he said. On August 13, 1964, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen became the last men to be executed in the UK for beating and stabbing to death van driver John West. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
My grandfather sentenced last woman hanged in UK – she should be pardoned, says Nigel Havers
Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, should be pardoned, says actor Nigel Havers. The Coronation Street star whose grandfather, the High Court judge Sir Cecil Havers, sentenced Ruth Ellis to death in 1955 for shooting dead her lover David Blakely, called for a posthumous pardon. Havers, who is playing his grandfather in a new ITV drama A Cruel Truth: The Ruth Ellis Story, revealed Sir Cecil was 'extremely upset' by the case after a jury convicted her of murder, which came with a mandatory death penalty. Havers added that his grandfather had always believed it had been a crime of passion, which could have resulted in a sentence for manslaughter and would have avoided the death penalty. Descendents of Ellis, who was in an abusive relationship with Mr Blakely at the time, argue that she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and are pushing for a posthumous pardon. Speaking to the BBC, Havers agreed with demands to pardon Ellis. 'I love that. Of course I would, that would be my choice, too. I would love that to happen,' he said. Describing filming his scenes for the drama, he said: 'I burst into tears [after filming]. I felt very sorry for my grandfather because he was extremely upset. He wrote a letter to the home secretary at the time and said this woman must not be hanged and the home secretary ignored it.' Elllis was a nightclub hostess and shot Mr Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead. The jury returned a verdict of premeditated murder in just 20 minutes and, as a result, it fell to Sir Cecil to don the black cap and pass down a sentence of capital punishment. She was hanged at HMP Holloway on July 13 1955. Ellis's case led to a petition with 50,000 signatures being sent to the Home Office for clemency, but none was granted. Significant media attention made her execution a high profile event, which was a significant driver to ending capital punishment in the UK. Family tragedy followed, with Ellis's ex-husband suicide in 1958 and her son, Andy, who was just 10 when his mother died, taking his own life in 1982 while in his twenties. Sir Cecil had sent money to Ellis's son every year from her death until the judges's own in 1977, Havers told the BBC. 'As far as my aunt is concerned, what she told me was that he financed one of the children, he supported them, that's how strong he felt,' he said. On August 13, 1964, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen became the last men to be executed in the UK for beating and stabbing to death van driver John West.
