He also wrote episodes of The Baron and Strange Report for ITC Entertainment, Shirley's World for the American Broadcasting Company, and The Informer and The Mask of Janus for the BBC.
A fluent Italian speaker, Degas also started collaborating with Dino de Laurentiis on design, script consulting and editing for the films Barbarella, Danger Diabolik, Better a Widow and Summertime Killer.
It was a Second World War drama series based on the film The Colditz Story and the book The Latter Days by Major Patrick Robert Reid.
Degas returned to the US and to television programming in New York and Hollywood for a brief period, which included being Head of Development for Brut Productions and for Danny Thomas Enterprises.
With high hopes, he turned to the world of theatre and co-produced Chapter 17 by Simon Gray, which was a dismal failure at the box office.
Returning to the UK, he joined Polymuse Inc., an international film investment company, as executive vice-president in charge of Creative Affairs and Marketing emphasising that "in an advertising led system in a new billion dollar market in Europe it was time to develop a competitive strategy and target specific audiences on a cost effective bases – and that it was a fallacy to think that inexpensive programmes meant inferior TV".
In 1990, together with Harry Robertson he brought his innovative skills back to the BBC as creator, writer and producer of Specials, a television drama series, including three paperback editions published by Fontana, about part-time policemen – ordinary people whose commitment made them extraordinary.