Wilton had a dry Lancashire accent, which suited his comic persona as a procrastinating and work-shy impediment to the general public.

His first theatre work was as a villain in melodramas, but he soon found himself getting laughs from his audience and, by 1909, was touring music halls as a comedian.

He portrayed the human face of bureaucracy; for example, playing a policeman who shilly-shallies his way out of acting upon a reported murder by pursuing a contrarian line of questioning.

Wilton, rubbing his face in a world-weary way, would fiddle with his props while his characters blithely and incompetently went about their work, his humour embodying the inherent absurdity of everyday life.

He has been acknowledged as an influence by fellow Lancashire comedians Ken Dodd and Les Dawson, and the film historian Jeffrey Richards has cited him as a key influence for the TV sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977); he made several monologues in the person of a layabout husband, who wryly takes part in the Home Guard.

Possibly his best-known character, Mr Muddlecombe, an incompetent J.P. from the fictional village of Nether Backwash, appeared in a number of radio series during the 1930s and 1940s and was known for the phrase "You shouldn't have done that!"