Nigel Havers: "I still bump into the Stones occasionally"
The actor talks about meeting Mick Jagger and his band and why he was like a dormouse at school.
The actor talks about meeting Mick Jagger and his band and why he was like a dormouse at school.
I was a little dormouse at first, very quiet. I went to boarding school at six, which means learning to look after yourself at a very early age. I got beaten on the third day, so after that I just kept my head down and didn’t say much for that first year.
When I look back at that little boy, I do feel rather paternal towards him. But then I smartened up and I got on with it. And actually, I became head boy. Not a very good one. I let people smoke and do all sorts of things.
They never gave me any advice about anything! But I was very lucky in that I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and I stuck to it.
In fact, my brother was instrumental with my career because he wanted to be a lawyer, which my father – an eminent barrister – was very glad about. So my brother was the serious, intelligent one, and I could disappear off the map and become an actor, which I did.
To this day, my brother looks at me as if to ask whether everything is all right. We’re very fond of each other but, although he’s only 18 months older, the gap could be 20 years.
"Just carry on, mate. You’re having the time of your life." I was at drama school in London where the ratio of girls to boys was 70-30. I’d suddenly woken up to the fact that I really liked the company of girls, so life was good.
London was so exciting at that time. It was the times of The Beatles and the Stones, and there really was this amazing sense of possibility.
Incredibly surreal, because they were so famous, and Father had sworn us to secrecy. He hadn’t wanted to do it at first, but actually, representing them did change him. He softened, became more interested in what we youngsters were up to. It opened his eyes, I suppose.
I still bump into the Stones occasionally. Not long ago, I was staying with my daughter Kate [48] on Mustique, where Mick’s got a house. Every Friday night, everyone goes to the same bar, and my daughter said, "My god, there’s this guy dancing in quite a weird way." I looked and it was Mick.
We saw quite a bit of him that week. He’s extraordinary, hugely smart. And not many people know this, but he’s like a magnet for little kids. He’s very sweet with them.
Nigel Havers Talking B*ll*cks, nationwide tour starts on 16 January 2026.
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