Upon graduating from RADA, Maughan gained her Equity Card while playing Ophelia in an Open University tour of "Hamlet". She then did rep at the Liverpool Playhouse and Chester, and won her first television opportunity in Philip Mackie's "The Organisation", starring Peter Egan. This led to episodes of "The Last of the Baskets" with Patricia Hayes, then Justice with Margaret Lockwood. In 1973, Maughan was chosen for the role of Rachel Rosing in a Granada Television serialisation of Howard Spring's novel, "Shabby Tiger".