She has since worked in theatre, television, film and radio, starting with Diary of a Young Man, a series written for her by John McGrath and Troy Kennedy Martin, directed by Ken Loach.
In 1984, she received the Pye Award for Female who had the greatest impact on television for her role as Dolly Rawlins in the crime series Widows, written by Lynda La Plante.
Her work as a director and writer includes: Voices from Prison (RSC Platform), Cathy Come Home (first stage adaptation, Pit Theatre), Ever After (co-written with Cathy Itzin), Kiss and Kill (co-written with Susan Todd for Monstrous Regiment and nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize).
Since then, they have worked together several times, most recently eight years ago when Callow directed Mitchell in The Destiny of Me at the Leicester Haymarket.
[3] In an interview with Inside Soap, the executive producer of EastEnders, Bryan Kirkwood commented: "With the loss of Barbara Windsor, I was keen to find a new matriarch for the show, and Ann Mitchell is a dream booking.
Cora Cross is a formidable woman, cut from the same cloth as many glorious Walford women of the past, and Ann Mitchell is just perfect for the role.
[6] As a leading member of the ground-breaking Citizens' Theatre for many years, Mitchell's roles included at Glasgow: Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children,[7] Helen in A Taste of Honey,[7] Amanda in Private Lives,[7] Mary in Mary Stuart,[7] Eva in Summit Conference[7] (written for her by Robert David McDonald), Mrs Warren in Mrs. Warren's Profession,[7] Gertrude in Hamlet[7] and Agrippina in Britannicus.
[7] For the Royal Shakespeare Company her roles include Hecuba, Aethra and the nurse in Tantalus at the Barbican (RSC), Frieda Lawrence in Divine Gossip, and the Woman in Edward Bond's War Plays I, II, III.
She co-stars as Lillian in the forthcoming Granada production of Jane Hall's Big Bad Bus Ride, and was most recently[when?]