From there he went to the BBC as a newsreader, becoming one of the country's most familiar faces during the 1960s and 1970s, as a regular presenter of the evening news. He moved on to a wide variety of light entertainment roles in UK commercial broadcasting. These included his children's TV series, Ask Aspel. He presented Capital Radio's mid-morning music and phone-in programme in London in the station's 1970s hey-day as well popular programmes such as Give Us A Clue and his own chat show on ITV.
His career took a severe knock after his Aspel chat show was seen to offer too much to Planet Hollywood and Matthew Freud's PR company to secure an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, he took on the mantle of Eamonn Andrews as presenter of This is Your Life, and continues to present the programme on BBC.