After three years of drama school, she headed to Manchester and the Royal Exchange Theater. There, among her other credits, she had leading roles in the plays "The Deep Man", "Measure For Measure" and "A Streetcar Named Desire", in which she played "Stella". At the same time, she was busily carving a niche for herself in numerous BBC television plays, including Cover Her Face (1985), Pride and Prejudice (1980), "Unity", Hideaway (1986), "Byron" and the ten-part The Citadel (1983). She was also a featured regular on the English comedy series Up Line (1987). In 1984, she made her feature film debut in Horton Foote's Nineteen Nineteen (1985).