Inevitably films beckoned. The actor made his debut in a bit part as actor Simon Ward in the Joe Orton biopic "Prick Up Your Ears" (1987) and appeared as a rookie crewman in "Memphis Belle" (1990). Alternating between films and TV, Mackintosh has created a gallery of fascinating characters ranging from a drug dealer in "London Kills Me" (1991) to a glam rocker in the 1993 BBC miniseries "The Buddha of Suburbia" to a psychopath known as 'The Street' in "Prime Suspect 5: Errors in Judgment" (PBS, 1997). One of his best roles, however, was as the transsexual Kim (formerly Karl) in "Different for Girls" (1996), playing up the ordinariness of the character and avoiding camp. More recently, the actor excelled as a rural farm worker who dreams of enlisting as a pilot in the WWII-era "The Land Girls" and offered an amusing turn as the owner of a cannabis factory in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (both 1998). On British TV, Mackintosh headlined two impressive 1998 miniseries, offering strong characterizations as the long-suffering John Rokesmith in "Our Mutual Friend" and as the husband in a crumbling marriage in "Undercover Heart".