Spriggs' roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company included Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
Her first marriage at 21 was a disaster and, in what she called "the most painful decision of my life", she left her husband and young daughter to pursue her acting dream.
Spriggs was a regular performer with the RSC under Peter Hall until 1976, playing many important Shakespearean roles, including Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, an acclaimed Gertrude in Hamlet opposite David Warner, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and a witty Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
She also featured in RSC productions of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, Shaw's Major Barbara and Dion Boucicault's comedy London Assurance, playing Lady Gay Spanker alongside Donald Sinden.
She was in Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes (1976), starred as Eleanor Pressett in the BBC drama We, the Accused (1980), played Connie, the head of a battling South London family in the thirteen-part drama Fox (1980), was Martha in Tales of the Unexpected (1980) and was the formidable Nan in the ITV comedy series Shine on Harvey Moon (1982–85).
In 1990, she was one of the God-fearing gossips in the BBC adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and in 1992, was in television versions of Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils and Angus Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.
[citation needed] Her early film appearances included Work Is a Four-Letter Word (1968) and Three into Two Won't Go (1969), both directed by Peter Hall.