Born in London - on Waterloo Bridge, Colin was raised and educated in Rochdale and Manchester. He studied law for five years, training as a solicitor before becoming an actor.

His theatrical debut was at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in Plaintiff In A Pretty Hat followed by The Other House at the Mermaid Theatre in London. Repertory seasons followed in Guildford, Liverpool, Canterbury, Harrogate and the Chichester Festival.

In London he has appeared in Run For Your Wife at the Criterion Theatre, The Price of Justice at the Mermaid, Traitors at the Hampstead Theatre and in 1987 as the twins in Corpse! at the Strand Theatre (with Jack Watling playing the Major). In 1996 he starred as Magwitch in the musical version of Great Expectations at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham followed by a tour of major dates.

Colin's other theatrical appearances on tour include Private Lives, Time And Time Again, Privates On Parade, Born In The Gardens, Spider's Web, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Death And The Maiden, Why Me ?, a 2003 return to Corpse! this time playing the Major, Strangers On A Train, Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of She Stoops To Conquer, drunken ham actor Selsdon Mowbray in the major national tour of Michael Frayn's award-winning comedy Noises Off, as the iconic Inspector Morse in the new stage drama House Of Ghosts and most recently as Count Fosko in Wilkie Collins' Victorian ghost story The Woman In White.

In 1998 he played the entire D'Ascoyne family in Kind Hearts And Coronets - the world premiere of the stage version of the famous 1949 film.

His pantomime appearances have been as diverse as Dick in Dick Whittington, Buttons, Captain Hook, Sarah The Cook and Widow Twankey. Credits as a director include The Oz Trials at Liverpool Playhouse, The Mousetrap in Stockholm and Oslo (in English!) and Bazaar and Rummage at the Duke of Cambridge.

His television career, commencing with Sartre's Roads To Freedom, includes Cousin Bette, War and Peace in which he played Prince Anatol Kuragin, The Edwardians, A Fall Of Eagles, The Citadel, Swallows And Amazons Forever, The Famous Five, Hollyoaks, Jonathan Creek, A Dance To The Music Of Time, The Bill, Sunburn, Casualty, Dangerfield, The Knock and as the Head of MI6 in The Waiting Game with the late John Thaw. He is however principally known for very contrasting roles in two of the BBC's most popular programmes: The Brothers in which he was universally loathed as Paul Merroney, the prototype yuppie and Doctor Who, in which he was universally loved as the flamboyant sixth incarnation of The Doctor, a role he successfully reprised in the stage version Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure. Colin has also played the Sixth Doctor in an extensive range of popular Doctor Who audio stories for Big Finish Productions.

His most recent television appearances have been in Doctors, Jonathan Creek, Hollyoaks, Little Britain, Kingdom and Hustle.

Films include Dangerous Davies, The Airzone Solution, The Zero Imperative, The Harpist, Soul's Ark and most recently, a horror film, The Asylum.

For over a decade Colin has written a weekly column for the Bucks Free Press (1999 Newspaper Of The Year). He is also a busy book reviewer and lyric writer. His children's musical Scrooge - A Ghost Of A Chance, written with composer Sheila Wilson, has been performed in hundreds of schools countrywide. Colin's first book, Look Who's Talking, a collection of his newspaper columns was published in 2009 by Hirst Books and was followed by a further volume of newspaper columns Second Thoughts, in addition to a collection of short stories entitled Gallimaufry.

Colin is married to actress Marion Wyatt. They live in Buckinghamshire with their four daughters, two goats, three cats, three dogs, two horses, thirteen guinea pigs, two degus and a hamster. He says they keep him young - and working!