While he did not publish very extensively, Griffiths was a charismatic teacher and a compelling broadcaster. From 1984, Griffiths contributed wry essays to the BBC Radio 3 series New Premises, to which he was introduced by its first producer Thomas (Tom) Sutcliffe, the two having known each other at Cambridge, where Griffiths was influential among a group of younger students in promoting the idea of linguistic rigour. He also appeared in television documentaries and in 1992 gave The Chatterton Lecture at the British Academy, on "Dryden's Past". In 1997 he delivered the F.W. Bateson Memorial Lecture at the University of Oxford on "The disappointment of Christina G. Rossetti".