Buchanan's breakthrough television role came in the detective series
A Touch of Frost in 1994 playing Constable Austin in three episodes. In 1996 he commenced playing DS (later DI) Peter Pascoe in
Dalziel and Pascoe. Buchanan has also appeared in comedy drama television series
All Quiet on the Preston Front (later called
Preston Front),
The Bill,
Between the Lines,
Dangerfield,
Heartbeat,
Space Island One and
Brief Encounters. Buchanan had a supporting role in the feature movie
Red Hot (1993) also starring Donald Sutherland and Balthazar Getty, a featured role in
Witness Against Hitler (1995), starred in the television movie of
Agatha Christie's
The Pale Horse (1996) as Mark Easterbrook. Another BBC TV role Buchanan had was as the aristocratic seducer of Moll, in
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
(1996). He also starred as Freddie Musgrave in
Catherine Cookson's
The Secret (1999). In 2009 he co-starred in the CBC TV film
Diverted. ==Personal life==