Pickup appeared opposite Penelope Keith in "Moving" and as Friedrich Nietzsche in "Wagner" in 1983; existing in several versions, "Wagner" has also been released as a film. The following year, Pickup portrayed Jan Tyranowski in the TV movie "Pope John Paul II" and Albert Einstein in the TV mini series "Einstein". He also acted the part of George Orwell in ""; Pickup later revealed in 2012 that this was his favourite role. He went on to play Prince Yakimov, a hapless, down-at-heel Russo-British aristocrat, opposite Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in the BBC serial "Fortunes of War" (1987), based on a novel cycle by Olivia Manning. He was the voice of Aslan in the BBC adaptation of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (1988) and later in "The Chronicles of Narnia", both serials derived from the books by C. S. Lewis. Pickup starred in the short lived sit-com "Not with a Bang", broadcast in 1990, and appeared opposite Michael Caine in "Jekyll & Hyde" the same year. In 1992 he appeared alongside Dervla Kirwan in the television adaptation of Melvyn Bragg's book "A Time To Dance", considered by some to be one of his best performances.