'I had to drive through it...' Nigel Havers recalls drastic action to avoid being late for work
Nigel Havers had to plough his car into the faulty barrier outside the house he was renting in Los Angeles to get it open to avoid being late for work.
Nigel Havers once got trapped in technology controlled house - which meant he had to smash his car through a parking barrier to avoid being late on set.
The 73-year-old actor was in Los Angeles to work on a TV show, but the property he was renting had gadgets and mod cons that were controlled by an Apple iPad, something that confused Nigel.
One day, Havers was stuck trying to leave and so he channelled his inner stunt driver instincts and sped through the barrier to ensure she arrived at the studio on time.
Writing in his guest column in the new issue of Woman's Weekly magazine, Nigel said: "I had a part in a show a few years back, so I went there for nine months.
"I was paying more in rent than I was being paid for the part!
"Everything in the house I rented was controlled by an iPad, and one day, the barrier outside the house wouldn't go up, so I had to drive through it.
"I smashed the car's front headlight and broke the barrier, but I had to get to work on time."
Nigel said it was a relief when he could fly home to the UK after filming the project because he didn't enjoy working with an American cast.
He explained: "I was dying to come home at the end of filming.
"American actors are very different to English actors. They're not very friendly. They're in their own little world and don't want to share anything.
"If you come to a filmset in England, we'll have a good time joking around and chatting, but it's very competitive in America.
"They think everyone is a threat, and you might get a job they want, but I don't give a toss what I do and don't get.
"I remember going for an audition many years ago where I sat next to Billy Connolly and Robbie Coltrane, and we were all up for the same part.
"None of us got it, and we all fell about laughing and went and got drunk together.
"That's a very British thing to do."
Nigel credits his acting career to his grandad Justice Cecil Havers - a high court judge, who presided over Ruth Ellis' trial for shooting her lover David Blakely dead in 1955, and she was the last woman hanged in the UK aged 28 - because he paid for him to go to Los Angeles to chase his dream in 1976.
The former Don't Wait Up star - who played his grandad in the ITV drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story - said: "We sat down and before I'd even said anything, he said, 'How much do you want to borrow?'
"£250 would have paid for a flight there and back, but £400 came out of my mouth instead.
"When I told him my plans, he said, 'That's brilliant, all actors should go to Los Angeles. You can pay me back a pound a month. Write me some letters and tell me what you're up to.'"
Sadly, in 1977, Justice Havers died, but Nigel did not have to pay back whatever he still owed because his grandad wrote it off in his will.
