Bowness did not come to mainstream public attention until he was picked up by the writing partnership of Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Cast as former-jockey Fred Quilly in the sitcom "Hi-de-Hi!," he starred in all 58 episodes. He subsequently starred with the same ensemble cast in "Oh, Doctor Beeching!" and "You Rang, M'Lord?." During his career he had credits in such comedy series as "The Benny Hill Show", "The Liver Birds", "The Goodies", "Dad's Army", "Porridge", "Sykes" and "Are You Being Served?".