[2] Wells started in cabaret at Oxford and began his television career as a writer on That Was The Week That Was, the 1960s weekly satire show that launched the careers of David Frost and Millicent Martin, among others, and also appeared in the television programme Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, as well as in The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.

In 1971, with John Fortune, he published the comedy A Melon for Ecstasy, about a man who consummates his love affair with a tree.

Co-starring Angela Thorne as Mrs. Thatcher, the play was a major West End hit, toured the UK and was adapted for television.He co-wrote Alice in Wonderland, a musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s novel with Carl Davis, which debuted at The Lyric Theatre in the West End, London.

[4] He also voiced Arnold the Elephant, Edward the Monkey and Bert in the children's TV series Charlie Chalk.

The author of the original book, Hugh Wheeler, had died, and John Wells was asked to help revise the text.