{"id":432199,"date":"2026-02-18T11:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432199\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:39:11","slug":"the-day-my-tv-hero-came-to-my-house-and-i-freaked-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432199\/","title":{"rendered":"The day my TV hero came to my house \u2014 and I freaked out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first book I loved<\/p>\n

At boarding school [Nowton Court Prep School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk] we had to read a Charles Dickens book and do an exam on it at the end of each term. When I was six, I read A Tale of Two Cities. It was a big book for a six-year-old, but I loved it. I thought the imagery was unbelievable.<\/p>\n

First music album I bought<\/p>\n

With the Beatles. I was about 11 and sat and listened to it over and over again. My grandfather, a high court judge [who sentenced Ruth Ellis], knew I was a fan and invited the Beatles for tea in his judge\u2019s chambers in Newcastle. They came and he got me their autographs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Play for Today is back after 40 years \u2014 can it still speak to the nation?<\/a><\/p>\n

First concert I attended<\/p>\n

The first pop concert I went to was the Bee Gees in the early Seventies. I went with my older brother, but we couldn\u2019t hear anything because the girls wouldn\u2019t stop screaming. My favourite Bee Gees song is probably Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

First pop-inspired fashion trends I adopted<\/p>\n

When I was around 14 I wore flared jeans and an American military-style frock coat with a velvet collar. I had very long hair too \u2014 that was the look in the Sixties. Carnaby Street was the place for cutting-edge fashion.<\/p>\n

First painting I bought<\/p>\n

I bought a sort of cut-out Victorian montage a while back and now I collect 20th-century works by British artists. My favourite painting that I own is by Edward Seago \u2014 it\u2019s a landscape of where he lived in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

\"Audrey<\/p>\n

Havers with Sue Nicholls Coronation Street<\/p>\n

ITV\/REX\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

First gallery I went to<\/p>\n

There was a gallery in Bury St Edmunds that my parents used to take me to. I remember seeing a snowy landscape once and it was actually snowing at the time, which my father thought made it wonderful enough to buy.<\/p>\n

First TV show I enjoyed <\/p>\n

I loved The Adventures of Robin Hood on a Saturday night at six o\u2019clock. One day, my dad brought Richard Greene [who played Robin Hood] back to our house for a cocktail after work. I freaked out \u2014 I couldn\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/p>\n

Richard Greene as Robin Hood<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

First film I saw at the cinema<\/p>\n

My mother took me to see Bambi. It\u2019s a terribly sad film and I cried a lot \u2014 my mother said, \u201cBe quiet or I\u2019ll have to take you out!\u201d<\/p>\n

First moment I realised I wanted to be an actor<\/p>\n

I could say that when I saw Lawrence of Arabia I thought, \u201cI\u2019d like to be Peter O\u2019Toole,\u201d but really I\u2019d made up my mind before that. I was acting at my boarding school from the age of eight and had been to the theatre quite often, so it just came naturally.<\/p>\n

First play I saw<\/p>\n

In 1963 the Old Vic put on a production of The Recruiting Officer. Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith were great in it. <\/p>\n

First actor to inspire me<\/p>\n

There were three of them \u2014 Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. They were the titans of theatre. The style of acting has changed over the years \u2014 if you were to watch them now you might think they were a bit over-the-top. But at the time they were the ones to aspire to.<\/p>\n

First performance I was proud of<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done a play called Art by Yasmina Reza probably more than any other actor. It\u2019s about three long-time friends whose relationship is pushed to the edge when one of them buys an expensive painting. It\u2019s so well written and I enjoy it immensely.<\/p>\n

\"Nigel<\/p>\n

With Denis Lawson, and Stephen Tompkinson in Art<\/p>\n

JON SWANNELL<\/p>\n

First moment I got recognised<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember the first moment, but I get recognised almost every day. People are always charming. Although when I was in Coronation Street I became a bit of a villain and people used to say, \u201cYou must pay Audrey back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel Havers: Talking B*ll*cks will be touring the UK throughout 2026 (nigelhavers.live)<\/p>\n

What are your formative cultural experiences? Let us know in the comments below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first book I loved At boarding school [Nowton Court Prep School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk] we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-432199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}