[1] She is a three-time Emmy Award winner, winning for the television dramas, The Forsyte Saga in 1970, The First Churchills in 1971, and for Vanity Fair in 1973.

She is also known for her other television roles, such as The Pallisers (1974), The Grand (1997–98), and as Molly MacDonald in the long running BBC One drama Monarch of the Glen (2000–2005).

Her mother was a teacher and her father was a director of Imperial Chemical Industries who was rarely at home, her parents having unofficially separated.

She took the title role in a dramatised version of Little Black Sambo recorded by the His Master's Voice Junior Record Club in 1961 (words by David Croft, music by Cyril Ornadel)[6] and sang on The Midday Show when ITV Anglia began broadcasting (as Anglia Television) in 1959.

Soon afterwards, she was taken up by Walt Disney and starred in The Three Lives of Thomasina (opposite Patrick McGoohan) and The Fighting Prince of Donegal.

In 1966, she was introduced to American TV viewers in the pilot episode of The Time Tunnel as a young passenger on the Titanic who befriends Dr Tony Newman.

Hampshire received Emmy Awards from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her roles in The Forsyte Saga (1970), The First Churchills (1969) and Vanity Fair (1973).

More recent TV roles include Molly MacDonald, Lady of Glenbogle, in Monarch of the Glen (2000–05)[9] and an appearance in Casualty (Series 26, No Goodbyes, 19 November 2011) as Caitlin Northwick.

[11] Her second book, The Maternal Instinct (1984), discussed women and fertility issues and she published a collection of interviews, Every Letter Counts: Winning in Life Despite Dyslexia, in 1990.

Hampshire was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours, for services to dyslexic people.