 Lyndhurst appeared in various television adverts and children's films in the 1970s, before winning the starring role of Tom Canty/Prince Edward in a BBC Television version of "The Prince and the Pauper", directed by Barry Letts and transmitted in January 1976.Lyndhurst gained increased national recognition two years later in two BBC sitcom roles, Raymond Fletcher, the teenage son of Ronnie Barker's Norman Stanley Fletcher in "Going Straight", and Adam Parkinson, a son of Wendy Craig and Geoffrey Palmer in Carla Lane's "Butterflies".This was followed by playing Dobson in the BBC drama series "To Serve Them All My Days" in 1980-81.