Being a secretary was considered a very good job in those days.

´She has since starred in two further seasons of the mini-series. In Canadian-Irish comedy On the Nose Blethyn played the minor role of the all-disapproving wife of Brendan Delaney played by Robbie Coltrane. Besides Brenda Blethyn played character parts in the BBC adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia and the ITV cricketing comedy-drama series Outside Edge based on the play by television writer Richard Harris.

In 1981 Blethyn earned her first critical acclaim for Steaming. Blethyn has since appeared in an eclectic range of films including independent comedies such as Saving Grace (2000) Plots with a View (2002) and Clubland (2007) music-themed films like Little Voice (1998) and Beyond the Sea (2004) and big-budget dramas such as Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007) the latter of which rank among the biggest commercial successes of her career. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations two SAG Award nominations two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations winning one.