[2] He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and in summer 1939 he appeared in the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park production of Twelfth Night.

[2] Archard's first major television role, reprising the like-titled radio show, was playing Lt Col. Oreste Pinto in the BBC wartime drama series Spycatcher, which ran for four seasons between 1959 and 1961.

[5][6] Archard appeared in over fifty films, including Village of the Damned (1960), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), Play Dirty (1968), Run a Crooked Mile (1969), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971), Dad's Army (1971), The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Sea Wolves (1980), Krull (1983) and King Solomon's Mines (1985).

[7] Archard and his long term partner, James Belchamber,[8] ran a touring repertory company, based in Torquay, which included Hilda Braid among its players.

[2] On the West End stage he appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre as a magistrate in the Terence Rattigan play Cause Célèbre and in The Case of the Oily Levantine by Anthony Shaffer.