After years acting in addition to day jobs, Jones' first big break came in 1993, when he was cast in the lead role of Bob Williams in Ken Loach's feature film Raining Stones.

[1] From July 1997 to May 2007, Jones was a regular cast member of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as the outspoken rogue Les Battersby.

[1][4] Since then, Jones has had numerous credits for film and television productions, including Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost, the pilot episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp, and Roughnecks.

He appeared as Dean Martin in Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes, Mr. Bumble in Oliver for Children in Need, and the Robber in Granada's televised Christmas pantomime Cinderella.

[citation needed] In March 2007, he was suspended from Coronation Street after allegedly getting drunk with an undercover reporter, making inappropriate comments and revealing future storylines.

He played Mick the Manager in the film Souled Out, and also appeared on the TV programme The Dark Side of Fame with Piers Morgan.

The competition also featured presenter Yvette Fielding and Atomic Kitten member Natasha Hamilton; it was won by former Catchphrase host Roy Walker.

[9] During the 2009–10 Christmas season, Jones appeared as King Rat in the pantomime Dick Whittington at the Contemporary Urban Centre in Liverpool.

[1][14][15][16] On 22 August 2013, Jones entered the Celebrity Big Brother house with his screen Coronation Street ex-wife, Vicky Entwistle;[17] on 6 September 2013, he was the fourth housemate to be evicted, on the same day as Dustin Diamond.

[18] In April 2014, production started on a Welsh feature film, Cream, in which Jones played the lead character, Ron Harris.

[20] In 2020, Jones was cast in the comedy short film Shiney, directed by Paul Holbrook, which was funded by the BFI Network South West.

On the morning of 9 October 1977, Jones discovered the mutilated body of 20-year-old Jean Jordan on an allotment in Chorlton, Manchester, a victim of the "Yorkshire Ripper", Peter Sutcliffe.

[1][41] In June 2015, Jones appeared in a documentary called Celebs on Benefits: Fame To Claim, about celebrities who have hit hard times.

[42] In 2019, he hit out against the rollout of Universal Credit, saying that the wait for the first payment was causing severe hardship, and that he had recently helped a family with money for food.