Christmas period, Abbot stepped down for Phillip Schofield to take the part but returned to the tour subsequently. In 2003, his "See You Jimmy" character (called C. U. Jimmy) came third in the Glasgow Herald's poll to find the most Scottish person in the world, behind Iain and Jimmy Krankie. Abbot's theatre roles include Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady (starring Amy Nuttall) at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and on tour; The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show; Grandpa Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium and Fagin in Oliver! both in 1998 and 2009. From July 2007, he took over the role of Roger De Bris in the UK tour of Mel Brooks' The Producers. In 2008, Abbot appeared as the Tin Man in the stage production of The Wizard of Oz at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. In 2008, the BBC announced that Abbot would be joining the cast of Last of the Summer Wine for the show's 30th series. He played Luther 'Hobbo' Hobdyke, who was the leader of a group consisting also of Entwistle, played by Burt Kwouk and Alvin, played by Brian Murphy. In 2008, he guest-starred in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Secrets of the Stars" as a character called Martin Trueman, an astrologer who was possessed by the Ancient Lights. On 8 August 2009, Abbot appeared in an episode of Casualty playing a pet shop owner. This marked Abbot's second Casualty role – he previously appeared as a different character in a 1999 episode. He appeared on Harry Hill's TV Burp parodying the character he played in Casualty. In 2009, when Rowan Atkinson fell ill during the original run of Cameron Mackintosh's West End revival of Oliver!, Abbot stepped into the role of Fagin for the second time. He again took the role after Griff Rhys Jones left the show on 12 June 2010. Between 2014 and 2016 he co-starred in the BBC sitcom Boomers. In December 2020, University Radio Nottingham presenters George Scotland and Damian Stephen decided to start an internet campaign to get "Atmosphere" to number one for Christmas. The campaign, in the style of previous internet campaigns for Rage Against The Machine and AC/DC (both of whom charted within the Top 5) was endorsed by Abbot as well as Paul Chuckle and Alistair Griffin, with "Atmosphere" highlighted as one of the contenders for Christmas Number One