At the age of 27, Wallace left his first job at McVitie's biscuit factory in Carlisle (where had worked for ten years) to take a three-year course in Film and Television at the College of the Venerable Bede at Durham University [REF].
After his retirement, he returned to make a number of guest and cover stints as a Lookaround presenter and reporter, until illness prevented him from doing so in 2002.