She has had numerous roles on British television, including Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Camomile Lawn, The Vacillations Of Poppy Carew, and beginning in 2007, Waking the Dead. In her early television appearances in particular, she gained a reputation for appearing nude or semi-nude.
Her stage roles have included Blanche Dubois in an Bristol Old Vic 2000 production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and Ophelia (opposite Ralph Fiennes) in a 1995 production of Hamlet; for the latter she won a New York Drama Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Award.
She was paired with Grant again in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, and also had major roles in New World Disorder and the film adaption of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.
Her nude appearances in Sirens prompted a listing on the first FHM list of the 100 Sexiest Women in the World.