She is best known for her work on EastEnders, a number of BBC serial adaptations including Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution, And Then There Were None, Ordeal by Innocence, The ABC Murders and The Pale Horse; Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and Oliver Twist; and J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy,[1] as well as work with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
[7] Reviewing it for The Daily Telegraph, Tim Martin found that, "The final episode of this bloody adaptation by Sarah Phelps did splendid justice to Christie's lightless universe, presenting an isolated mansion full of leaking corpses, in which the characters – quite understandably – freaked out in ways that no previous adaptation has countenanced.
Ordeal by Innocence had been pulled from the Christmas scheduling on BBC One after one of the leading actors in the drama miniseries was accused of sexual assault.
[9] In June 2018 it was announced that the BBC were filming a Phelps adaptation of Agatha Christie's ABC Murders starring John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot.
Her theatre projects include Tube, Angela Carter, The Subtle Art of Boiling Lobsters, Amaretti Angels and Modern Dance for Beginners.