Hamilton began her acting career in classical theatre, spending the first five years appearing in productions by companies such as the
Royal Shakespeare Company and the
National Theatre.
The Master Builder earned Hamilton the
London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 2000 she received the
Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her performance in
As You Like It,
Crucible Theatre. She had starred with
Clive Owen, and later Izzard, in a successful London production of the play the previous year, in which she and Izzard portray the parents of a girl with severe brain damage who attempt to save their marriage through jokes and
black comedy. The following year she appeared in
Suddenly, Last Summer (2004), an adaptation of the
Tennessee Williams play, performed at the
Lyceum Theatre in
Sheffield. For her performance, she was honoured as Best Actress by winning the Critics' Circle Theatre Award and
Evening Standard Theatre Award. Her success led some of the media to brand her as "the next Judi Dench". Hamilton took a three-year break from the stage before returning as
Viola in the Shakespearean comedy
Twelfth Night (2008), staged at
Wyndham's Theatre in London's
West End.
Television and film Hamilton is known for working in the
costume drama genre. In 2001, she joked that she had been in
corsets for the preceding seven years. During the 1990s, she had supporting roles in three adaptations of
Jane Austen's novels. These include the 1995 serial
Pride and Prejudice as Mrs Forster, the 1995 film
Persuasion as Henrietta Musgrove, and the 1999 film
Mansfield Park as
Maria Bertram. She won the role of
Queen Victoria in the 2001 BBC TV production
Victoria & Albert, despite facing strong competition and being relatively unknown at the time. She auditioned with the director
John Erman in a London hotel suite, and after reading lines from several more scenes at his prompting, was offered the part immediately. Noting that the monarch is typically depicted as stern and stout, Hamilton desired to show a younger version who "loved parties and balls and theatre and opera and new dresses" after a childhood spent in a "forbidding environment". In 2005, she appeared in the three-part miniseries
To the Ends of the Earth alongside
Benedict Cumberbatch and
Jared Harris. The production, an adaptation of the
novels of the same name by
William Golding, featured various self-absorbed characters who are forced to remain in close quarters while sailing on a ship to Australia during the
Napoleonic Wars. Hamilton described the production as having "some of the most beautiful scripts I've seen", and called her character Miss Granham "one of the strongest people on the boat". From 2008 to 2011, she appeared in the
BBC One series
Lark Rise to Candleford as Ruby Pratt, one of two spinster sisters who run a
high fashion shop in a small 19th-century town.
The Guardian deemed Ruby's rivalry with her sister Pearl (played by
Matilda Ziegler) as a highlight of the series, believing both actresses portrayed their characters with "infectious relish". In 2013, Hamilton played Peggy in the BBC drama series
What Remains. In 2015, she appeared in the BBC One drama,
Doctor Foster, playing Anna Baker, a woman who lived across the road from the central characters, Gemma and Simon Foster. She reprised her role in the second series of the drama in 2017. By the final episode, her character had moved away. In 2016 and 2017, she appeared in the first two seasons of the
Netflix series
The Crown as
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The series, which was about the life and reign of
Queen Elizabeth II, spanned six seasons between 4 November 2016 and 14 December 2023. Since 2020, she has starred in the Sky drama
Cobra as Anna Marshall, the
Downing Street Chief of Staff. ==Personal life==