[1][2] Wigan first attracted attention in 1858 when he opened on 4 December 1858 in the original production of The Porter's Knot by John Oxenford, playing Smoothly Smirk.
He played The Baron de Beaupré in John Maddison Morton's A Husband to Order from 17 October 1859, and William Hogarth in Tom Taylor's The Christmas Dinner, opening on 23 April 1860.
[2] From 7 November 1868 he played Inspector Javert in the first production of The Yellow Passport by Henry Gartside Neville, an adaptation of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
[3] On 24 April 1875 he opened, as manager, the Theatre Royal, Holborn, renamed the Mirror, with a revival of The Hidden Hand, A. Maltby's Make Yourself at Home, and James Kenney's Maids of Honour.
His most successful play was Friends or Foes, adapted from Nos Intimes by the French dramatist Victorien Sardou, first produced at the Olympic Theatre on 8 March 1862.