In 1974, while working at Lancaster University for a doctorate focused on political behaviour, and realising he was getting nowhere with it, he got a job at the BBC in their Audience Research Department doing a study of the influence of the media during the 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum. He then became a schoolteacher for several years and in 1980 passed selection for 21 SAS, for which he served until 1983. In 1985, he re-joined the BBC and worked in Current Affairs and Documentary Features, including a stint on Panorama. He later joined Trans World International, the television arm of Mark McCormack's International Management Group, where he worked for 20 years and became its Director of Special Projects. After a brief period as Head of Production at Octagon CSI, in 2006, he began his own media company, Big Ape Media with his wife, Lucy.