Television work (1968–present) Le Touzel began her career at the age of ten, playing a child who bedevils the
Second Doctor in the 1968
Doctor Who story
The Mind Robber. She later starred on the
BBC's "
Look and Read", appearing as Helen in their 1971 serial
The Boy from Space. An early adult role was her portrayal of
Fanny Price in the BBC dramatisation of
Jane Austen's
Mansfield Park (1983). In 1985, Le Touzel co-starred with
Bryan Pringle in a television advertisement for
Heineken. A parody of the
"Rain in Spain" scene from
My Fair Lady, it saw Pringle's character teaching a
posh woman (Le Touzel) how to speak
cockney by repeating: "The wa'er in Major'a don' taste like wot id ough' 'a" ("The water in
Majorca don't taste like what it ought to"). The advert subsequently placed at number 29 on
Channel 4's rundown of the "
100 Greatest TV Ads". Le Touzel appeared in various television productions throughout the 1990s, including the police procedural
Between the Lines (1994), an adaptation of
Catherine Cookson's
The Gambling Man (1995), and the science fiction miniseries
The Uninvited (1997). She went on to star as
veterinarian Briony on the
BBC One sitcom
Beast (2000–2001), which ran for two series. Later credits included prominent roles in the
Victoria Wood television film
Housewife, 49 (2004), political drama series
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006), an adaptation of Jane Austen's
Northanger Abbey (2007), the
ITV comedy-drama series
Bonkers (2007), the
BBC Four film
Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008)—in which she portrayed
Conservative politician
Patricia Hornsby-Smith—and the four-part ITV/
ABC miniseries
Titanic (2012), where she played
Lady Duff-Gordon, a survivor of the
sinking of the Titanic. In addition, her work as
D.C. Hazel Savage in the two-part television film
Appropriate Adult (2011), a dramatisation of the crimes of
Fred and
Rose West, was described as "very authentic" by
Variety and "remarkable" by the
Los Angeles Times. In 2017, Le Touzel appeared on the
second season of
Netflix's historical drama series
The Crown, with
The Telegraph describing her portrayal of
Lady Dorothy Macmillan as "magnificent". Between 2020 and 2023, she appeared as Christine Cranfield, a
GCHQ boss, on the
Sky One sitcom
Intelligence. While the series was met with mixed reviews, Le Touzel's work as the tightly-wound Cranfield was praised, with
Collider commenting that she played the part to "perfection".
Film work (2006–present) After appearing in several
short films, Le Touzel made her feature film debut in
Michael Apted's
Amazing Grace, a 2006
biographical drama about the
abolition of the
slave trade in 18th century England. She then co-starred as Heather in
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), a partially
improvised comedy-drama directed by
Mike Leigh, which
The Hollywood Reporter called a "certified good time" with "wonderful performances from top to bottom". Following a small part in
The Iron Lady (2011), Le Touzel played three different characters in
Cloud Atlas (2012), a big-budget science fiction drama directed by
the Wachowskis. Her next film roles were in
Mr. Turner (2014)—a drama based on the life of
J. M. W. Turner—and the 2017 political satire
The Death of Stalin, where she portrayed
Nina Khrushchev, the second wife of
Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev. ==Personal life==