He was best known for his roles in Coronation Street as Mr Birtles, then as a taxi driver, and later as Wilf Jones, in Emmerdale Farm as Ernie Shuttleworth, Les Brandon in I Didn't Know You Cared, and cafe owner Sid in Last of the Summer Wine.

[citation needed] In 1958, the Comer Brothers participated in an ITV talent show called Bid for Fame and began working for Butlin's.

[citation needed] In 1959, they won first prize in the Butlin's National Talent Contest, winning £1,000 and a film contract[1] with the Boulting Brothers.

[2] In 1959, the Boulting brothers cast John and Tony Comer in the film I'm All Right Jack, in which they starred alongside Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough as trade union shop stewards.

[4] The disease had so affected his voice that in his final television appearance, as cafe owner Sid, in the Last of the Summer Wine Christmas episode Getting Sam Home, his lines had to be dubbed by another actor, Tony Melody.