 Before graduating Pickup won a leading role in the BBC series "No Bananas", her first professional engagement.This was followed by a role opposite the late Alan Bates in Mike Poulton's "Fortune's Fool".Other major theatre roles followed, including Irina in Mike Poulton's translation of "Three Sisters" for Bill Bryden, Olivia in "Twelfth Night" for Terry Hands, Helena in "All's Well That Ends Well" for Irina Brook, Portia in "Julius Caesar" for David Farr at the RSC, Sylvia in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" and Helena in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also for the RSC.