Prior to working on Doctor Who, he had been a long-term employee at Pinewood Studios, where he eventually rose to be the head of Pinewood's matte painting department. Along the way, he had worked, albeit in a mostly uncredited way, on all the 1960s Sean Connery James Bond films, as well as , and ' Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. At around the time he worked on Doctor Who, he broke away from Pinewood and set up his own company. He continued to be busily employed for the next two decades. He retired in 1997, after having provided special effects for films like Clash of the Titans and Hellraiser II.