He is best known for his roles in Blackadder as Percy, Duke of Northumberland (series one), Lord Percy (series two) and Captain Darling (series four). He decided not to reprise his role as Percy in series three due to a fear of being typecast, although he did appear in a guest role as half of the Scarlet Pimpernel in the episode "Nob and Nobility" (the other half being played by Nigel Planer). This made him the only person other than Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson to appear in all four series of "Blackadder", though he did not appear in the one-off special Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

He was brought up in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport in Cheshire, and Stroud, Gloucestershire, and educated at Marling School, Stroud, and Wadham College, Oxford.

He has worked as a dramatic actor, appearing on stage in the original production of Pravda with Anthony Hopkins, and on television in Edge of Darkness (1985) where he played a nervous and embittered anarchist. He has starred in Ian McKellen's film production of Shakespeare's Richard III (1995), as Catesby, Notting Hill (1999) as Max, as well as Severance (2006), The Emperor's New Clothes (2001), 102 Dalmatians (2000), FairyTale: A True Story (1997), Wetherby (1985) and Erik the Viking (1989).

He also played Frank-N-Furter in the 1990 West End production of The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Adrian Edmondson as Brad and Ed Tudor-Pole as Riff-Raff. His performance can be heard on the soundtrack album of this production.

In 1989 he co-starred with Kate Bush in the music video for her song "This Woman's Work", where he presents a more capable role, quite different from the persona portrayed in the Blackadder programmes. He also appeared in the Westlife video for "Uptown Girl", along with Robert Bathurst, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Ioan Gruffudd and James Wilby. In 1999 he played Tony Hawes, a senior employee with Barings Bank alongside Ewan McGregor in the film Rogue Trader

In 2004, he joined the cast of the BBC/Kudos spy drama Spooks for its third season, playing Oliver Mace, a semi-regular character. This character recurred in Series 5 Episode 5 of the series.

In 2006, he starred in the BBC adaptation of The Line of Beauty as Gerald Fedden. He has also appeared in the 2006 film Severance, as Richard.

In summer 2007 he played Iago in Shakespeare's Othello at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside in London.