Lewis Archer

Lewis Archer was a male escort who was in a relationship with Audrey Roberts, before stealing from Barlow's Bookies and fleeing. However, he later returned to pay his debts and make up with Audrey, much to the dismay of her daughter Gail. They later resumed their relationship when Lewis convinced her that he was a changed man.

1950-2010
Lewis met Audrey at the Weatherfield Council Christmas lunch on 18th December 2009 when he was escorting Claudia Colby. Audrey, a friend of Claudia's, fell for Lewis and he remained in her thoughts afterwards despite her shock at finding out he was a paid escort. In the New Year, Audrey called on Lewis to have dinner with her, but got cold feet at the last minute and pretended to be ill when he arrived at her door. Lewis, who was used to nervous first-time customers, sat with Audrey as she shared her memories of her late-husband Alf before they left for dinner as planned.

A month later, a bored Audrey called on Lewis again. This time they visited Audrey's regular pub, the Rovers Return Inn, and pretended in front of Audrey's friends that they had never met before. Norris Cole, who had attended the Christmas lunch with Audrey, recognised Lewis and jumped to the conclusion that Lewis and Audrey were having an affair.

Rita Sullivan called on Lewis's services after seeing his advert in a magazine. On his second rendezvous with Rita, Lewis was surprised to encounter Audrey and Claudia and to find out that Audrey knew Rita. When he suspected that Audrey wasn't pleased about their meeting, he ushered Rita away. Rita's perceived interest in Lewis only encouraged Audrey to see even more of Lewis, although on a visit to Audrey's salon in Coronation Street, Lewis misplaced his notebook which contained details he had written about his thoughts on his clients. When Lewis went to retrieve it, he found that it had been a wake-up call for Audrey that she was a client and nothing more, but Lewis surprised Audrey with a kiss and told her he had developed real feelings for her. They immediately started dating.

For a time, Lewis saw Audrey while continuing with his escort work but after noticing that she was put out by his constantly being engaged with escort work, Lewis quit, telling Audrey that he was beginning to feel too old for the job anyway. Audrey decided to invest £100,000 to persue Lewis's dream with him to run a hotel in Greece and they planned to leave for a new life.

Lewis began flirting with Deirdre Barlow at the bookies, and while her back was turned, he would stamp the betting slips and later filled in the winning horses to make it look like he had won. He managed to con £4,000 from the bookies. On Lewis and Audrey's "leaving" day for Greece, Lewis arrived alone at Manchester Airport in order to flee the country. He left Audrey's money alone, cancelled the transfer, and booked a flight to Barbados. Before boarding, he met a woman called Lydia Radcliffe, and after discovering the pair were on the same flight, offered to sit with her to ease her nervousness. Back in Weatherfield, Peter Barlow discovered Lewis's con on the CCTV footage at the Bookies, and Deirdre got sacked. A broken Audrey was shown the footage at the Platts' house where she was waiting for him, and back at home she found a letter from Lewis saying "I tried".

2012-2013
As of February 2012, Lewis was back in England. When he and a friend entered a country pub, he bumped into Audrey and Gail who were inside after getting lost when they had ventured out power walking. Lewis pretended to be his "twin" brother Hugh, but when the Barman referred to him by name, Lewis paid for their drinks and made a quick departure. However later in the day he turned back up on Coronation Street, and paid Peter Barlow back the £4,000 he owed him, plus an extra £1,000. He later went to see Audrey, and asked her to escort him to the police station to hand himself in. He was let out on bail and turned up in the Rovers where he was punched by Deirdre. Audrey later met Lewis in Nick's Bistro for a drink where he made out he was a changed man and gave her his phone number. He turned up at the Salon the next day where Audrey's grandson David threatened to hit him. He sent flowers to the salon, and Audrey tracked him down and found out he was living in a grubby bedsit after having money issues. Lewis attended court, and was ordered to serve forty hours' community service. He was given a job at the Bistro by Nick Tilsley after impressing a food critic.

While on holiday with Audrey in October 2012, he had spotted Penny Thornley, a woman he had conned five years previously. While at a train station he had vanished leaving a confused Audrey abandoned, and she made her way home. Lewis returned to Coronation Street not long after Audrey's return home, and revealed the reasons for his departure. He then suggested they leave town and start afresh, but while packing Audrey's family arrived - along with Penny - who Audrey contacted. Penny planned to turn Lewis into the police, but Audrey stopped her and offered her the £10,000 that Lewis had conned from her, although Lewis disagreed that he couldn't have her do that, Audrey persisted. Penny later left - very disappointed in Audrey for being foolish enough for falling for him again.

Lewis began working at the Rovers, and began supporting landlady Stella Price's mother Gloria who claimed to have an illness and not long to live, although it was just a scam. She later got Gail involved to see if Lewis would agree to run off with Gloria and if he would betray Audrey. Lewis was angry to discover what happened and told Audrey, and was annoyed to discover she was aware of the situation and dumped her, causing Audrey to be devastated. Lewis then began plotting revenge on both Gloria and Gail for ruining his happiness, and later exposed Gloria as a cheat when she cheated to win Pub of the Year competition for the Rovers, which caused a shame faced Gloria to leave the street, but not before Lewis told her and gloated about his success.

Lewis got his job back at the Bistro, and than began planning his revenge on Gail. Gail, despite her distrust in Lewis, began to have a more softer way with him and felt guilty about what she had done. Lewis faked an accident in the Bistro blaming the wet floors Gail was working on and then faked a bad back. A guilty Gail invited him to stay with her, and Lewis used the opportunity to get access to Gail's bank details and find out her worth. Lewis begins giving advice to Gail and acts like he cares for her, which causes Gail to develop feelings for him. Lewis also lets his friend Patrick in on the con who is happy to see that Lewis hasn't gone soft and returned to his own ways. While sharing a bottle with Gail in the Bistro, Patrick arrives pretending to bump into Lewis in the off chance, and "offers" him a job in Italy running a hotel. But Lewis turns the offer down as he doesn't want to leave Weatherfield behind, making Gail believe he is staying for her.

Lewis and Gail begin dating in secret but Lewis didn't want to take it further thinking of Audrey's feelings. When the family find out by what Gail is up to, Lewis decides to drive a wedge between Gail and her family by saying he will take up Patrick's offer for them both to move to Italy together. Gail takes a loan from her house for £40,000 pounds. Lewis then plots to take the money to transfer it into separate accounts. He then blackmails Kylie after finding out she slept with Nick on Christmas, and gets her to get Gail's username and password. Once he obtains it, he tells Gail to get the family together at the house to announce the plans to move, and then leaves a DVD recording on him confessing what he has done. Lewis then vanishes. The Platt family play the recording, and Lewis tells Gail that he could never love her, and blames her for breaking up him and Audrey. Lewis then tells Audrey he is sorry for causing her pain and will always love her. Lewis sent a courier to the house with £9,000 for Audrey, settling his debt for her bailing him out.

When Audrey arrived back at her house later that night, she found flowers left by Lewis, with a card reading "You were always the one. All my love, all my life, Lewis."

Background Information

 * Actor Nigel Havers joined the cast of Coronation Street in October 2009, and Lewis' scenes were first aired in December 2009. This was a one-off appearance, and the character returned in the New Year to continue on the role. In March 2010, Nigel revealed he would like his contract rewnewed as he was enjoying his time on the show.
 * Lewis was written out at the end of his storyline in August, eight months since his debut.
 * In February 2011, Nigel revealed while on Loose Women that he was in talks with the Coronation Street producers about making a comeback. Later that year, it was revealed he was making a comeback to the show, and in January 2012, Nigel started filming his return which aired the following month.
 * It was rumoured that Lewis would be killed off in the summer of 2012 in a car accident. However Nigel Havers had later renewed his contract up to 2013, and Phil Collinson later stated in an interview that it was a false rumour.
 * Lewis departed at the end of his second stint in February 2013 after being involved in a storyline conning Gail McIntyre.

Quotes
"Charmed" (First Line)