She first acted on radio for the BBC in 1945, later preferring the medium as it gave her more time to look after her young son, and it continued to be the medium in which she was the most active throughout her career. She played roles in hundreds of series, serials and plays, including various Shakespeare productions; "Mrs Dale's Diary", "The Governor's Consort" (a part written especially for her by Peter Tinniswood), "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and "The Horse's Mouth". For the latter two productions she won Best Actress at the 1991 Sony Awards, the radio equivalent of the Oscars. In 2004 she played Eurycleia in BBC Radio 4's acclaimed dramatisation of "The Odyssey". In "The Archers" in 1951 her character Jane Maxwell was the original stumbling block to the engagement of Phil Archer and his future (first) wife Grace. In 1965 she played schoolteacher Elsie Catcher, and was a regular on the programme for two years until the character retired. In 1969 she returned for a time as Lady Isabel Lander and she finally came back in 1992 as Julia Pargetter.