In 1959 she had acted in a radio play opposite Richard Attenborough. When making his first film as a director, 1969's "Oh! What a Lovely War", he remembered her performance and cast her as the mother of the Smith family, her first film role, which won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the British Academy Film Awards. She later appeared in two other films, "Fragment of Fear" (1970) and "Vampire Circus" (1972). On television, she appeared in a variety of high-profile series in supporting roles. She played Prudie Paynter in the BBC's adaptations of the "Poldark" novels in the 1970s, and Zasulich in 1974's "Fall of Eagles". In the 1980s she appeared in the "Doctor Who" spin-off "K-9 and Company" and D.H. Lawrence adaptation "Sons and Lovers" (both 1981), and in the early 1990s found fame as Aunt Agatha in three series of "Jeeves and Wooster", with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.