steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in mike leigh's 1970s tv plays "nuts in may" (1976) and "abigail's party" (1977). she received bafta tv award nominations for the 1986 bbc serial "the singing detective" and in 2001 for the itv drama series "fat friends" (2000–2005). other television roles include "pride and prejudice" (1995), "gavin &amp; stacey" (2007–2010, 2019) and "orphan black" (2015–2016). her other film appearances include "a private function" (1984), "topsy-turvy" (1999), "the life and death of peter sellers" (2004), "dad's army" (2016) and "the king's man" (2021).