Has his own programme where he drives a canal boat, exploring canal ways and looking at the history of industrial age in the UK, mainly in the Midlands.

He read English at Brasenose College, Oxford University.

Appears with Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love (1998), Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and their nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008).

He has directed two plays at the 1996 Channel 4 Sitcom Festival in London's Hammersmith, "Bleeding Hearts" and "In Exile".

He spent three years touring with The Mikron Theatre Company.

Co-starred with Tom Felton in Tom's first feature length film The Borrowers (1997) and later co-starred with him again in the Harry Potter movies as Arthur Weasley.