Bowler was a regular cast member of the
ATV soap series
Harpers West One, playing the character of Roger Pike, and played a variety of bit parts and single episode roles on television throughout the 1960s, including an episode of ''
Gideon's Way. He featured in an episode of The Avengers'' in 1967 entitled "Dead Man's Treasure" and starred alongside
James Caan in the 1968 war film
Submarine X-1, about
World War II British midget submarines. From 1966 to 1976, Bowler played Det. Chief Inspector Harry Hawkins for the entire run of the BBC TV police drama
Softly, Softly (later
Softly, Softly: Task Force). He also appeared as Titinius in
Julius Caesar (1970), as Saturninus in
Jesus of Nazareth (1977), as Bill Smugs in
The Island of Adventure (1982), and as Moose in the
Terence Hill film
They Call Me Renegade (1987). After a continuing role in
Crossroads from 1986 to 1987, he later played the part of
Frank Tate in the
ITV soap opera
Emmerdale from November 1989 to May 1997. Bowler has been active in
charity work and
adult education. With his third wife, Dianne, he spent several years at
Auroville International Township in
Tamil Nadu, India. There he engaged in
development work with people in the surrounding Tamil villages and often entertained the village children. In August 2012, Bowler released a recorded reading of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
Rime of the Ancient Mariner to raise money for The Auroville Trust. ==Personal life==