In 1999, he played "The Fool" in Shakespeare's King Lear for the Northern Broadsides Theatre Company nationwide tour.

[6] From the early 1970s onwards, Brown had a successful acting career in television and film, one of his early roles being in the 1969 Ken Loach film Kes, based on a novel by Barry Hines, in which he played a milkman; his sister Lynne Perrie also starred as the lead character's mother.

He worked alongside his sister (Perrie) again, in Colin Welland's factory drama Leeds United (1974) in the BBC's Play For Today series.

[8] Brown appeared in another Play For Today, The Price of Coal, again directed by Ken Loach and based on the book by Barry Hines.

He had a regular role as laboratory technician Phil Strong in the popular detective series The Enigma Files (1980).

[12] Over the years, Brown has played one-off roles in many long-running television serials, including Crown Court, The Cuckoo Waltz, All Creatures Great and Small, The Bill, Minder, Last of the Summer Wine and Peak Practice.

[citation needed] Brown was one of the original co-hosts of the game show 3-2-1, with Ted Rogers and Chris Emmett.