He is remembered for his parts as the unnamed 'city gent' reluctantly sharing a train compartment with the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night, the planetary designer Slartibartfast (designer of fjords) in the BBC radio and TV series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as Sir James Greenley ("C") in The Sandbaggers, as Lord Salisbury in Edward the Seventh, as Major Toby Smith-Barton in The Duchess of Duke Street, as the Duke of Broughton in Nanny, as the occasional character Sir Desmond Glazebrook in the TV series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, and as Mr Becket in Sammy's Super T-Shirt. He also appeared in the 1965 Morecambe and Wise film The Intelligence Men as patron of the arts Sir Edward Seabrook, Lord Bartelsham in Ripping Yarns, and Squire Dale in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Small House at Allington. He played Admiral Croft in the 1971 BBC television adaptation of Persuasion. In 1986 he appeared in Paradise Postponed, and voiced the professor Gus in The Giddy Game Show (1985-7). He also appeared in the final episode of the BBC's television production of Rumpole of the Bailey (1992) as Rumpole's exculpatory dentist, Lionel Leering, and in the last series of Lovejoy (1994) playing Tinker's brother-in-law.