WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS? James Archer

Sunday 14 March 1999 00:02 GMT
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Main claim

Son of the more-famous Jeffrey. Now Archer junior has hit the headlines in sterling chip-off-the-old-block style, suspended from his high-flying, share-trading job with an investment bank while alleged irregularities are investigated. A definite whiff of Schadenfreude can be detected, from the driest report to inelegant ha-ha quotes from an Oxford contemporary. The Archers, one of Britain's favourite soaps, has had a vintage week with the new young blade. Son of the "fragrant" Mary and literary-giant and mayor-wannabe Jeffrey, James, 24, was brought up with plenty of honey for tea in Granchester, Cambridge. Watch out for future cameo roles worthy of Mark Thatcher.

Appearance

Jeffrey Archer's son. Gormless-faced, large-browed, public-school-haired, Major Minor style, Hooray Henry wannabe.

The Archers

Our hero had auspicious beginnings. He was in "Pop" at Eton, a select group of decadently dressed prefects, and a committee member of one of Oxford's most hedonistic drinking clubs, the Assassins, when he went to Brasenose to read chemistry. The Assassins, comments a contemporary, is "strictly for Captain Try-Hard types", stuffed to the gills with "nouves". Shocking.

Not a Penny Less

Last year, Archer and his trading team made a pounds 100m for their bank before their suspension. They called themselves the "Flaming Ferraris" after the cocktails they drank: a mix of 100 proof rum, Grand Marnier and green Chartreuse, ignited and drunk through a straw so that it won't burn your face. Terribly clever, then. Impressive, mature, and above all, exciting.

Fame prospects

There's always the risk that tragic try-hards who watch Wall Street and think money and cocktails make them interesting will go the way of the Eighties. However, the Hon James is an Archer. He could get an agent, write a novel, start a nightclub or run as the cat to his father's Dick Whittington. Watch out for the inevitable. James Major and Emma Noble, clear a space, please.

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