In July 2020, April/May 2021 and June/July 2022, Ashdown appeared on Alan Carr's Epic Gameshow in the Tony Green role as the darts scorer on Bullseye.
The two remained friends and in 2002, George approached Ashdown about "spotting" (assisting the broadcast director with what camera to broadcast on live television) for BBC Sport when their usual employee did not turn up at the venue, and also started to use Ashdown as the regular MC for his exhibitions, where he gained much experience.
Ashdown had not undertaken any work as MC with the British Darts Organisation prior to April 2013, who used Martin Fitzmaurice as their main MC in both open events and in both their televised events, the BDO World Darts Championship and the Winmau World Masters.
On 11 April 2013, Fitzmaurice announced that he had offered his resignation from the BDO which had been accepted, following an on-camera incident at an event in Scotland four days previously.
Having been Masters of Ceremonies and head referee for the World Darts Federation alongside Jacques Nieuwlaat since 2008, Richard became the WDF's Chief Development Officer in October 2019 and instigated the return of the WDF World Darts Championship to its former home of 34 years (1986 to 2019), the Lakeside Country Club in April 2022.