Best remembered as Dirty Den in Eastenders while serving in the army in Germany he murdered a taxi driver and was sentenced to life and served 10 years in Wormwood Scrubs. While there a touring company put on a show which transformed him, he joined the prison theatre group and was in every play they put on while he was there which transformed him. On release he took up acting and married actress Jane Laurie with a baby that was due about September 1986.