It’s the stunning £40m penthouse flat overlooking the Thames belonging to Jeffrey Archer where Royals, MPs and Prime Ministers have partied with Krug Champagne and shepherd’s pie.
Now it’s playing a leading role in hit Netflix thriller Black Doves, staring Keira Knightley. Ben Wishaw and Sarah Lancashire.
Many wouldn’t find it a huge leap of the imagination for the plush riverside pad of convicted perjurer and jailbird, novelist and former politician Archer to be at the centre of an international criminal conspiracy.
But this time it’s all fiction, and the multi-millionaire has found a side-line renting out the split-level penthouse to film crews.
As boss of the shadowy mercenary private spy outfit the Black Doves, Sarah Lancashire can be seen sipping Champagne in the flat in episode five of the explosive series, currently sitting in the number one spot on Netflix’s UK platform.
Lord Archer told MailOnline it was only the second time he’d allowed filming in the penthouse in 30 years.
‘The previous occasion was an advert for BT in 1998 where I was talking on the phone to a Hollywood producer in his bath while I stood at the window of the apartment. The tag line was ‘It’s good to talk’.
Lord Jeffrey Archer’s (Pictured with wife Mary Archer in 2017) plush penthouse has served as a party pad to society’s most elite – from MPs to Prime Ministers and even Royals
But now his lavish abode is taking centre stage in Netflix’s new hit show Black Doves (Pictured: Sarah Lancaster in Archer’s Penthouse on the show)
‘I wasn’t there for the filming of Black Doves because Mary and I were in Mallorca, but I’ve seen the show and I think it’s terrific – Ben Wishaw is the next Lawrence Olivier to my mind, he’s a fantastic actor.
‘I don’t know if we’ll have a procession of directors beating down the door to film in the penthouse now, but if they do, then all the better.
‘All the fees, I’m not exactly sure how much, but I’m guessing about £20k, went to the fund-raising for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, because Mary is co-chair of the campaign board for the new hospital, which would be the first of its kind in the East of England.
‘She’s also President of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, and if anyone else wants to film at the penthouse, then that money will also go to the same charity.’
Last year, Archer told the Mail his 2023 Champagne and shepherd’s pie party would be the last one at the flat overlooking the Thames and the Houses of Parliament.
The festive parties, at the best-selling author’s penthouse overlooking the Thames, became the stuff of legend, with Tory prime ministers and most of their cabinets in attendance.
‘I am 83,’ Lord Archer said. ‘Mary and I felt that, after 40 years, now was the right time to hold the last one.’
Among the guests at the couple’s first bash in 1983 was John Profumo, the defence minister whose 60’s affair with nightclub dancer and model Christine Keeler led to the scandal that rocked Harold Macmillan’s government.
It is only the second time in the last thirty years the multi-millionaire has allowed camera crews to film inside his luxurious pad (Pictured in 2011)
Last year, Archer told the Mail his 2023 Champagne and shepherd’s pie party would be the last one at the flat overlooking the Thames and the Houses of Parliament
Boss of the private spy outfit the Black Doves, Sarah Lancashire can be seen sipping Champagne in the lavish flat during the series
‘Jack Profumo came to our first party,’ Archer says. ‘Who will come to our last one? Margaret Thatcher never missed one. We’ve had five prime ministers and several members of the Royal Family here over the years.’
When asked for directions to the lavatories at the sumptuous flat, which is decorated with expensive paintings, Archer was known to advise guests to go, ‘just past the Picasso and turn left at the Matisse’.
He said he would miss the planning involved. ‘I like giving parties,’ he says. ‘I enjoy the organisation.’
Archer says they ‘had a no-smoking policy long before that became fashionable’ yet it was ignored by the husband of Baroness Thatcher: ‘Denis Thatcher took absolutely no notice. I had someone follow him round with an ashtray.’
In 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at a libel trial in 1987. He was released in 2003 after serving half of his sentence.
When he and Lady Archer resumed their festive parties, there was a full house. He said at the time: ‘The Evening Standard ran a cartoon with one guest saying to another, ‘But I read that you weren’t coming…’
Archer switched to Pol Roger from Krug champagne about 20 years ago, but doesn’t touch the stuff himself. ‘I don’t like champagne,’ he tells me. ‘though I’m told it’s very popular.’
The building, originally constructed as office space, but long since residential, has also been home to Bond theme composer John Barry, in a 10th floor flat where Archer and his scientist wife Mary rented before buying the penthouse.
He once told an interviewer: ‘That’s why we’ve got the telephone number 0077. We’ve been stuck with it ever since.
‘Our current flat was previously leased by the former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. He had his own views on how the flat should look and they weren’t quite in line with Mary’s, so she got to work. The shag pile on the walls had to go.
‘It has a beautiful view because the bend in the Thames makes it look as though you’re in the river. The view is even more staggering at night. Guests just stare out of the window.’
Archer’s parties became a thing of legend with Tory ministers and their cabinet in attendance
At the age of 83, Lord Archer said he and his wife felt that after 40 years of holding the annual bash that it was time to bring the tradition to a close
He added: ‘I look out this window in the morning and think, you lucky bastard,’ he says. ‘You got a gift to tell a story, and you get all this. I live this unbelievable life.’
As well as the London flat, the Archers also own a £5m vicarage in Grantchester, once home to the poet Rupert Brooke, and a spectacular £30 million house on the Mediterranean in Mallorca.
In Black Doves, Knightley plays Helen Webb, a spy employed by the organisation which offers its intelligence to ‘the highest bidder’, rather than any particular nation.
Webb has infiltrated the top levels of the British government by assuming a false identity and marrying an MP who would go on to become defence secretary.
There are many jokes in the black comedy about dull Tory wives as she passes on her information to the cold-hearted queenpin of the Doves, Mrs Reed, played by Sarah Lancashire.
Wishaw plays Sam Young, a ‘trigger man’ with a heart.