Her television credits include: Dixon of Dock Green, Doomwatch, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, Upstairs, Downstairs, I, Claudius, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Pickwick Papers, Lillie, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Our Friends in the North, Common As Muck, Lovejoy, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Crown Court and Heartbeat.
Her film career also includes roles in Subterfuge (1968), The Omen (1976), The Monk (1990), Butterfly Kiss (1995), Jude (1996), Cider with Rosie (1998), and Fragile (2005).
She attended Barrow Girls Grammar School, where she excelled in Latin, English Literature and foreign languages including French and German.
[2] She later gained a place to study teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1948.
Her third marriage in 1970 was to the artist and documentary filmmaker David Thompson; they remained together until his death in April 2019.