[6] After his initial success with Moviewatch, Vaughan said in interviews, including one with Mayfair magazine, that he had been incarcerated for the distribution of pornographic videotapes.

[7] Latterly, Vaughan recalled the event in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, One night, an old schoolfriend, a student, called and asked him if he had any drug connections; the friend had met somebody who wanted to know.

Van Outen's cheeky "Essex girl" personality played off well against the quick wit of Vaughan, and together they recovered audience figures to record levels.

[11] One feature of Vaughan's presentation was the way in which he frequently interacted with the various cameramen and technical people in the studio, turning some of them into popular characters in their own right.

His ability to build a rapport with regulars from different walks of life such as Trevor Baylis, Mark Bright and Drusilla Beyfus, as well as the depth of knowledge he revealed in his Shed interviews, established him as something of a polymath.

Also notable was that each programme finished with a zany situational competition in which Johnny revealed considerable talent as a character actor.

The partnership with replacement model Kelly Brook failed to reproduce the chemistry between Vaughan and Van Outen,[12] and audience figures "plummeted".

[13] Brook was replaced by Liza Tarbuck and Van Outen returned again as main female presenter in 2000[14] but the show was unrevivable.

Viewing figures were good (the show regularly received 2.5 – 3 million viewers a night) and commentators suggested that the format was best suited to the free-wheeling Vaughan.

[16] In October 2003 he devised and produced and was the first presenter of BBC Radio Five Live's Fighting Talk, a sport-related comedy show.

Further television appearances ensued, when Vaughan tried a revival of his on screen relationship with Van Outen in 2004 in the BBC's Saturday night family show Passport to Paradise, which lasted for one series.

The show rose in the ratings, reclaiming the top spot of London's breakfast radio chart in October 2008,[20] with an average weekly audience of 862,000 listeners.

In August 2013, it was announced Vaughan had signed for talkSPORT hosting a new show for Saturday morning from 11 am to 1 pm called the Warm Up alongside friends James Brown and Gavin Woods.

In December 2006, Vaughan made a guest appearance on the BBC comedy panel game QI (Series D, Episode 10, "Divination").

As Absolute Radio was also the official station of the BT London Live concerts in Hyde Park, which were also held during the Games, Vaughan also participated in the on-stage presenting of the acts and interviews with Team GB athletes and medalists.

Vaughan participated in a 2018 episode of quiz show Pointless Celebrities, reaching the final round alongside fellow Radio X DJ Toby Tarrant.