London - Disgraced peer Lord Archer is set to star as an accused man in a West End theatre production he wrote himself during the depths of his latest personal crisis, it emerged yesterday.
His latest comeback will involve treading the boards of an as yet unspecified West End venue, with the play scheduled to begin this October. Lord Archer is set to play the lead role for three months.
The news came in an interview the former Tory candidate for London mayor gave to Martin Bashir for Tonight With Trevor McDonald, broadcast tonight on ITV.
Lord Archer's role in the play, The Accused, will be of a man accused of murdering his wife, with the typically dramatic final twist of having the audience voting on his character's innocence or guilt after the courtroom speeches.
Breaking his silence for the first time since being forced to resign as a mayoral candidate over revelations he had persuaded friend Ted Francis to lie in a libel trial, Lord Archer admitted he had been "a fool".
Other subjects tackled in the interview are the Anglia share-purchase affair, which he called "a mistake", and tacit admissions that he partly stole the idea for a book and lied about academic and professional claims.