Archard was born in Fulham, London, where his father Alfred James was a jeweller. His paternal grandfather Alfred Charles Archard and great grandfather Henry Archard were clockmakers, watchmakers and jewellers in Mayfair, West London during the 1800s. Link to Henry Archard clock : [1] He was the maternal grandson of James Matthew Littleboy, Mayor of Fulham, 1906–07. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and in summer 1939 he appeared in the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, London, production of Twelfth Night. As a conscientious objector during the Second World War, he worked on Quaker land.

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. His TV guest appearances represent some of the most popular shows broadcast in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s: two notable roles in Doctor Who; as Bragen in The Power of the Daleks and as Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars, a regular role in Emmerdale; plus appearances in Upstairs, Downstairs, Rumpole of the Bailey, Bergerac, The Avengers, Callan, The Children of the New Forest (the 1964 BBC edition), Danger Man, Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Dixon of Dock Green and The Professionals.

He 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).