He played the lead role in the two-part drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, for which he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor.
[2] He credits his introduction to entertainment to taking lessons in clowning at Bridgnorth from mime artist Ben Benison, also a presenter on TV programme Vision On.
[6] He then featured in the second series of the BBC's comedy Psychoville, as Peter Bishop, owner of Hoyti Toyti, an antique shop specialising in toys.
[3] In early 2012 he joined the cast of the BBC drama Prisoners' Wives, appeared as Detective Gilks in Dirk Gently and portrayed a smooth Church of England PR man in Twenty Twelve.
[12] In 2014, he played the leading role in a two-part ITV drama entitled The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, about the innocent initial suspect in the 2010 murder of Joanna Yeates.
Watkins appeared in two episodes of The Hollow Crown and played the role of Malcolm Turner in the BBC sitcom series Love, Nina.
He narrated the Channel 4 documentary series The Job Interview, appeared as Tony Michaels in an episode of Friday Night Dinner and was cast as Mr Humphries in the BBC revival of Are You Being Served?.
[19] The same year, it was confirmed that Watkins would be a contestant on the third series of the ITV show Cooking with the Stars, alongside other celebrities including Joanna Page, Matt Willis and Peter Andre.
Watkins's film roles include character parts in Confetti,[12] High Hopes,[6] Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,[3] Tomorrow Never Dies, The Golden Compass[3] and Wild Child.