His television career began in the mid-fifties and although initially playing small parts, during the sixties he began to take on bigger roles, including the part of Detective Chief Inspector Lewis in the BBC's long-running Softly Softly (1966) series. He often played policemen but none more famous than DCI Frank Haskins in The Sweeney (1974), opposite John Thaw and Dennis Waterman, during the seventies, where he was an admirable foil to Thaw's brash, renegade Inspector Jack Regan. He was also a regular in other TV series such as The Nineteenth Hole (1989), You Must Be the Husband (1987) and Shelley (1979), all during the eighties, and No Job for a Lady (1990) opposite Penelope Keith in the nineties.