His first own TV Special was in 1985 for Thames TV, "A Dabble With Digance", and featured newsreader Carol Barnes. After the success of this special he was signed to TVS in Southampton after being a studio warm-up act there for Matthew Kelly and this first series of six programmes screened on Thursday nights. He also filmed a pilot "The Three Busketeers" featuring himself, Chris Barrie who went on to star in "Red Dwarf", and Adrian Hedley. At this time he still continued as a studio warm-up act for "The Des O'Connor Show". He was also appearing regularly on late night shows for Tyne Tees Television with Gillian Reynolds.