John appeared in two dramas in 1999, both of which confirmed his brillance as an actor and his popularity with the public. The first of these, "The Plastic Man", cast John in the role of a plastic surgeon whose life isn't as perfect as it seems as he is forced to face two moral dilemmas in his life: the first over a patient and the second concerning his troubled marriage. John played plastic surgeon Joe MacConnell, whose son is in training to be a doctor but was involved with a crime, the victim of which was one of Thaw's patients. In this 2-part, four-hour series, MacConnell's marriage is suffering from neglect, his son can't bear to tell him he's dropping out of medical school and his job is extremely highly pressured, So what does he do? Have an affair with a colleague. Naturally this only adds fat to the fire. This drama comes from the producer of the acclaimed detective series Prime Suspect. John revelled in the role of a man facing the crisis of being torn between two women, explaining "This character has far more depth that I have been allowed to show in either Morse or Kavanagh." 12 million viewers agreed.

John rounded out 1999 with a two-part adaptation of the Gerald Seymour thriller "The Waiting Time". Playing Joshua Mantle, a solicitor's clerk, Thaw becomes involved in post-cold war intrigue in England and Germany that might uncover the shady past dealings between a high-ranking British member of Parliament and a former member of the East German secret police. The story begins when a female Army officer attempts to get revenge on a former East German Stasi officer who killed her boyfriend. During the years of the Cold War Dieter Krause was an important officer in the Stasi - East Germany's secret police. One night in 1988 he and his men captured a spy, Hans Becker, and they killed him. Ten years on and the wall has come down, the Stazi has gone but Krause has managed to keep himself popular and in a position of influence by providing the West with tit-bits of information on a Russian colleague Rykov, who is seen as a potential Russian leader with hard-line military policies. The Americans need the officer because he's buddies with the possible new President of Russia, and so the mighty forces of the British Secret Service (run by former Doctor Who - and now Orson Welles lookalike - Colin Baker) to thwart Thaw's efforts to get to the truth. While visiting a British Army base Krause is attacked by Corporal Tracey Barnes. She was one of the British military contingent in Germany back in 1988 and it turns out that she was present when Krause killed Becker. She has decided that it's time Krause should pay for the murder. Joshua Mantle, a former soldier who gets involved, travels to Germany to help Tracy. Krause and his former-Stasi men have something in common - they can't afford the murder to be made public so they set out to intimidate and silence the few witnesses from 1988. Meanwhile British Intelligence are watching with interest because this whole affair could bring down the Russian Rykov. What everyone agrees on is that Barnes and Mantle are expendible. John was intrigued by the role as something different from anything he had ever done, and the attraction of working during part of the shoot in Germany, even though he decribed it as the coldest-ever location of his entire acting career. Besides the challenge of staying warm while filming was the equally daunting task of learning to speak rudimentary German for some key scenes. He viewed the character as "a lonely, rather bored man whose life is given purpose and meaning by this adventure." For a look at a PDF promotional brochue on "The Waiting Time," CLICK HERE.