In 1973, Southern Television networked a documentary on him by Mike Connor, and he received some wonderful reviews in the National Press. Alan Brien in the Sunday Times wrote; "A fresh sprawling talent...immense emotion, expressed with power and subtlety...He has a sort of Rembrandtesque ability to transform their ordinariness without sentimentalising..." Sir John Betjeman commented; "Jim Gilbert's powerful and sensitive portrayal of people and their emotional ties must not be missed" For the next four years, Gilbert lived on his earnings as an artist. During which time, he left his wife Jean to bring up their three children in poverty, having left for the sixteen-year old daughter of a friend. In 1977, he was commissioned by the Dylan Thomas Society to paint a portrait of the poet, which was then presented to President Carter at the Whitehouse. But the good times were not to last. In 1979, Gilbert was sentenced to seven years for stealing. He wrote to Jean Davies at the time "I had no intention of stealing again...the money was tempting and it was spiced by the thought of creeping through the moonlit fields at 3am...Now I come to realise I had no chance. My belief in my talent was built up on false hopes, nothing but a dream. I got this desperate feeling that I wanted to be on my own, No responsibilities, No one to worry about, to have breathing space." Once again, "Breathing space" became the confines of a cell and the space where he found he could paint without distraction.