In March 2011 Lancashire began starring in a new Cameron Mackintosh musical, "Betty Blue Eyes", at the Novello Theatre. In the production, a loose adaptation of the 1984 film "A Private Function", she starred as Joyce Chilvers, an aspirational housewife who Lancashire describes as "brittle" and "capricious". Despite positive reviews the musical closed in London on 24 September 2011, after a run of just six months. For her performance Lancashire was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In 2012 she appeared as lady's maid Miss Whisset in the penultimate episode of the 2010 revival of "Upstairs Downstairs". In September 2012 Lancashire began appearing as Head of Ladieswear Miss Audrey in the six-part series "The Paradise" set in a department store in Northern England in the late 19th century. Lancashire described her character as "a true archetypal spinster" who has long denied herself a romantic life and who begins to feel undermined by a younger colleague.