McCann has become noted for his biographies on figures such as Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, John Le Mesurier, Woody Allen and Terry-Thomas, and books about British television comedy such as Dad's Army, Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers.

[7] He also taught in the university's continuing education programme, primarily in the subject of the history of British political thought.

[9][10] This subject was revisited in his chapter "Biographical Boundaries: Sociology and Marilyn Monroe" in The Body: Social Processes and Cultural Theory published in 1991.

Simon Callow writing for The Guardian noted the book's "occasional tantalising glimpses of his friendships" and "gamely attempts to sketch the broad outlines of Howerd's sex-life".

[25] McCann has written numerous articles about politics and popular culture for The Guardian,[26] Evening Standard,[27][28] The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Washington Post, The Times Literary Supplement, The Modern Review, Sight & Sound, Radical Philosophy and the New Statesman.