She attended De Aston School in Market Rasen and then went to St Hilda's College, Oxford to study Classics.
Her award-winning documentaries led her to be invited to write and direct her first drama Eight Hours from Paris (1997) for George Faber, a film for Screen Two in which real people played themselves, alongside professional actors.
Her credits include Jamaica Inn, Call the Midwife, for which she won a British Academy Television Craft Award in 2013,[6] Five Daughters, Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006), and The Other Boleyn Girl (2003).
In May 2018 "Three Girls" was also voted Best Mini Series at the BAFTA TV Awards (shared with Nicole Taylor, Susan Hogg and Simon Lewis).
In October 2018 "Three Girls" also won the Prix Italia (again shared with Nicole Taylor, Susan Hogg and Simon Lewis).