Gardner eventually left medicine to become an actor, starring in a number of TV commercials, including that for the Renault Mégane.

He reached prominence playing Brian Johnson in CITV's My Parents Are Aliens (episodes of which he also wrote) and Michael, the café owner in Jack Dee's BBC sitcom Lead Balloon.

The programme attracted impressive ratings for BBC One, with the third series posting an average of 7.8 million viewers.

[2] Between 2013 and 2015, he appeared as Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Smith in three series of the wartime comedy Bluestone 42, about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick.

He also appeared in an episode of the Netflix show, Lovesick, portraying Dylan’s father at surprise wedding anniversary party.