He played Lieutenant Archibald "Archie" Kennedy in the popular ITV series "Hornblower", appearing in five of the eight television films in which Kennedy (rising in ranks from midshipman to lieutenant) has a much expanded role from that essayed in C.S. Forester's novels. Bamber also appeared as a trainee doctor in the final series of long running ITV soap "Peak Practice", and portrayed an SAS officer in "Ultimate Force"; it was on a break from the latter, which he subsequently revealed as a job that he was not entirely happy with, that he traveled to Los Angeles and read for "Battlestar Galactica".