[3] However, with his acting career lasting only for a short time, he first became an advertising copywriter, then performed his National Service as a gunner with the Royal Artillery, and later worked as editor at Jonathan Cape.
[5] He soon graduated to writer/script editor of several other adventure-mystery series, like the anthological Detective, The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling and the version of Sherlock Holmes (1965) with Douglas Wilmer in the lead.
In 1977, Read was brought into Doctor Who by Graeme MacDonald, head of series and serials, to serve as script editor under the new producer, Graham Williams, replacing Robert Holmes in the middle of the 15th season.
Read was also instrumental in commissioning Douglas Adams as a Doctor Who writer, and for advocating the Hitchhiker's Guide author should be appointed as his replacement as script editor.
Immediately following his stint on Doctor Who in 1979, he contributed the scripts for the episodes Powers of Darkness and Out of Body, Out of Mind to the paranormal thriller series The Omega Factor.
The series' unique approach to the world of Sherlock Holmes gained Read an award from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.
While the majority of Read's books were solo works, he and Fisher collaborated a number of times, almost always to explore some aspect of World War II.
Together they wrote The Fall of Berlin (1992),[9] The Deadly Embrace: Hitler, Stalin and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939–1941 (1988), The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence, (1997)[10] Operation Lucy: The Most Secret Spy Ring of the Second World War (1980), Berlin Rising: Biography of a City (1994), Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies (1984), and Kristallnacht: The Nazi Night of Terror.
He co-wrote a submission from the Writers' Guild and the Directors and Producers Association to the Annan committee on the future of broadcasting that was subsequently used as part of the charter agreement for establishing Channel 4.