BBC Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel: Real life of 'ladies' man' Nigel Havers with three wives and tragic loss

Nigel Havers is a veteran of the screen.

The 70-year-old might be best known by readers as charming villain Lewis Archer in soap Coronation Street, but his career has seen him star across film and TV.

He earned a BAFTA nomination for his role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, played Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war drama Empire of the Sun, and Ronny in the 1984 David Lean epic A Passage to India.

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Even away from the cameras, the heartthrob of his younger years is a self-confessed ladies' man and has married three times.

Nigel, from Middlesex, had a privileged upbringing, as the son of Sir Michael Havers, who was a barrister and later became Attorney General for England and Wales and also Lord Chancellor in the Tory Government in the 1980s.

His aunt, Lady Butler-Sloss, was also the first female Lord Justice of Appeal up until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the country.

Nigel opted out of the traditional Eton education that his family had however, and studied at the Arts Educational School in London.

Following a few stints in theatre, he married his first wife Carolyn Cox in 1974, and had a daughter together, Kate, born three years later.

But as his acting career took off, he struck up a relationship with Polly Williams, whom he later married in 1989 after divorcing Carolyn.

His second wife Polly, who was the daughter of actor Hugh Williams and sister of actor Simon Williams, who was a friend of Nigel, died at the age of 54 in 2004 with ovarian cancer.

Nigel has opened up about the tragic loss in a past interview with Piers Morgan for his Life