In 1992 Williams produced a series of documentary films for the BBC and Showtime USA Funny Business, which starred Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, Roseanne Barr and Bill Hicks. Williams worked as a co-producer in the film Up on the Roof in 1997,[1] and the following year was a producer for the 1998 television film Jack and the Beanstalk starring Paul Merton.[2] She also produced the wildlife documentary 'Operation Lemur" starring John Cleese, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award.
The first authorial credit of Williams was the 2005 ITV television production Wallis & Edward, starring Joely Richardson.[3][4] Williams then wrote The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton for BBC2, which came out in 2006.[5] After reading in 2004 Becoming Jane Austen, a 2003 biography by Jon Hunter Spence, Williams approached Ecosse Films about the possibility of adapting it into a film about Austen's early life.[6] The resulting film, Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy was released in 2007.[6]
Williams was the screenwriter for the 2007 docudrama, Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea.[7] The following year, Williams adapted the novel Poppy Shakespeare starring Anna Maxwell Martin and Naomie Harris for Channel Four television. The Guardian called her script an example of "good art,"[8] and she received a nomination for Best Television Short-Form Drama at the 2009 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards. In 2009, Williams co-wrote the two-part television drama based on Andrea Levy's novel Small Island.[9] It also received a nomination for Best Television Short-Form Drama, this time at the 2010 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.[10] Williams adapted a novel by Sophie Hannah into the 2012 two-part series Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams.[11]
In 2018 Williams wrote the three-part BBC TV series The Long Song, based on the novel by Andrea Levy, starring Tamara Lawrance, Hayley Atwell and Sir Lenny Henry.
In 2019 she wrote a four-part original drama series FLESH AND BLOOD for ITV starring Imelda Staunton, Francesca Annis, Russell Tovey and Stephen Rea, broadcast in February 2020.
In 2020 she began work on a six part series about the Mitford sisters, OUTRAGEOUS, which aired on UKTV, Britbox and BBC i-player in 2025, starring Bessie Carter, Joanna Vanderham, James Purefoy and Anna Chancellor.
