[2] Before he became an actor, he was a commercial traveller, laundry hand, cook, farm labourer, and long-distance lorry driver, and served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

[2] Lucas had begun his stage career by the summer of 1950 in Chesterfield[4] and was still active in the theatre in late 1990 in Run for Your Wife.

He starred in a string of British crime b-movies such as Payroll, The Break, Breakout, and Calculated Risk.

Lucas is probably best known for his role in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–1974) as Dr. James Gordon, and in the BBC series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as Inspector Lestrade in the episode "A Study in Scarlet" (1968).

He also appeared in The Bill, Doctor Who, Last of the Summer Wine, Sir Francis Drake (TV series) and the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.