In 1971, his novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm was controversially filmed as Straw Dogs. Sam Peckinpah's cinematic treatment marked a watershed in the depiction of sexual violence in the cinema though the most controversial scenes are absent from the book. The novel is currently being filmed again as Fear Itself, due to be released in 2005.
While working as commercial manager of association football club Chelsea F.C., he renewed his collaboration with Venables, resulting in four co-written novels. From the novels grew the 1978 TV series Hazell which the pair co-wrote under the shared pseudonym P. B. Yuill.