Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, Daws appeared in the 1982 stage play On Your Way, Riley! with Brian Murphy and Maureen Lipman. He played Tuppy Glossop in the early 1990s version of Jeeves and Wooster. He played pompous cricket captain Roger Dervish alongside Brenda Blethyn in the ITV comedy drama Outside Edge 1994–96, for which he was nominated for Best Comedy Actor at the British Comedy Awards. He has also appeared in a number of one-off dramas including the 1997 BBC drama, The Missing Postman. In 1996 he starred in a pilot of what would become Roger Roger, a comedy drama which ran until 2003. Daws starred as Sam, the co-owner of Cresta Cabs.