He has appeared in many film, television and theatre roles, most notably as Melish in Minder and Sir Piers Fletcher-Dervish in The New Statesman from 1987 to 1992. Troughton also starred in the first series of Backs to the Land. His more recent roles include senior science master Derek Halliday in the Taggart episode "Out of Bounds", 1998, a therapist in the fourth series of Cold Feet and Mr Mermagen in Enigma.