Johnson started the season unranked. His first event was the 1981 International Open in which he beat Jim Donnelly 5–4 in Round 1, Murdo MacLeod 5–1 in Round 2 and received a walkover against John Pulman in Round 3. In Round 4 Johnson beat Jim Wych 5–3 and then lost in Round 5, the last 32, 5–3 to Graham Miles. In the 1981 UK Championship Johnson began the event with a comprehensive 9–1 win over Tommy Murphy in Round 2. This was followed by a Round 3 9–3 defeat of Mike Watterson and in Round 4 a 9–4 win over Cliff Wilson. In round 5 Johnson beat the former three-time world champion John Spencer 9–5 and this earned Johnson a last 16 appearance at the UK Championship against another former world champion, Ray Reardon, to whom Johnson narrowly lost 9–7. At the 1982 International Masters, Johnson began the event in the pre-qualifying group stage with a 2–1 loss against Dave Martin, and 2–0 wins over both Geoff Foulds and Cliff Wilson. The results were enough to take Johnson into the next qualifying round where he lost 2–1 to John Virgo, but beat John Spencer 2–1 and Dave Martin (again) 2–0. In the third and final group stage Johnson lost 2–0 to Dennis Taylor and Reardon but beat Virgo 2–1, but the win was not enough to take Johnson out of the group stage. In Round 1 of the 1982 World Championship Johnson beat Vic Harris 9–4 and reached the last 48, where he lost 9–8. After a 2–0 Round 1 defeat by Jackie Rea in the 1982 Bass and Golden Leisure Classic Johnson ended the season with no ranking points, £2,950 prize money – 25th in the money list, but was again unranked.