The V.I.P.s
Read attended an audition at the Corona Academy for Dramatic Arts in Chiswick, west London, and he was accepted. He left boarding school the following term in early 1963. Within two weeks of joining Corona Academy Read worked professionally, with a background role on the 1963 film "The V.I.P.s". The following week he featured in a Persil commercial. By the end of his first term, he appeared in the Children's Film Foundation film "The Young Detectives", replacing the original actor who had fallen ill. He then played Dick in the 1964 film "Five Have a Mystery to Solve", based on an Enid Blyton Famous Five book.