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.