Allen first came to national prominence in 1990 when he documented an England fan's eye view of the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy with his camcorder, for the BBC series Video Diaries in an episode entitled On The March With Bobby's Army.
Allen also presented BBC's Standing Room Only and wrote and directed several documentaries for the BBC in the 1990s including Yr Darian, 'Bombay Brown Wash', 'Booze Bores Barbours and Brilliance' and 'Rotten to the Core'.