He appeared in the "Play For Today" production of David Edgar's play about British neo-Nazis, "Destiny" (1978). The same year he played the part of Mr Johnson, a schoolteacher, in Peter McDougall's BBC supernatural drama "Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man". He appeared as Samson Brass in another BBC Dickens production, "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1979), and in another version of "Great Expectations" (1981), this time as Wemmick. The same year he played a recurring UFO-obsessed character in the sci-fi comedy "Kinvig". His most critically acclaimed role during this period was as the neglected and abused child, Donald, in Dennis Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills" (1979).