Hancock's first big television role was as Carol in the BBC sitcom "The Rag Trade" in the early 1960s. She also played the lead roles in the sitcoms "The Bed-Sit Girl", "Mr Digby Darling", "The Secretary Bird" and "Now Take My Wife". Her other television credits include "Doctor Who" (playing a parody of Margaret Thatcher in "The Happiness Patrol"), "Kavanagh QC" (opposite her husband, John Thaw), "Gone to the Dogs", "Brighton Belles", "EastEnders", "The Russian Bride", "Bedtime", "Fortysomething", "Feather Boy", "Bleak House", "New Tricks", "Hustle" and "The Catherine Tate Show". In 2008, she played the part of a terminally ill patient who travelled to Switzerland for an assisted suicide in one of "The Last Word" monologues for the BBC, in a role that was written especially for her by Hugo Blick. In 2009, she played Liz in "The Rain Has Stopped", part of the BBC daytime mini-series "Moving On".