Wendy Richard first became familiar to TV audiences playing Joyce Harker, a regular in the BBC's 1960s soap opera, The Newcomers. She has also appeared in Dad's Army (first as Edith Parrish, and later as Private Walker's girl-friend Shirley), Up Pompeii! and The Likely Lads.

Richard also appeared in two Carry On films, playing a cameo role in Carry On Matron and a supporting part in Carry On Girls (which also featured future EastEnders co-star, Barbara Windsor). In 1962, her distinct cockney vocals also helped get her to #1 on the UK singles chart, uncredited, on the single, "Come Outside", by Mike Sarne.

She also appears in a missing scene on the Beatles 1965 movie 'Help!'. Her scene is on the special features DVD. However, she doesn't appear in the final version of the movie.

Richard's first appearance in a television series was as a teenager in Stranger on the Shore which debuted in 1961. The theme tune of the series was the Acker Bilk clarinet solo of the same name. She also had a bit part in a 1965 episode ("Don't Nail Him Yet") of "Danger Man" (aka "Secret Agent") with Patrick McGoohan.

She is probably best known for her role in the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served? as Miss Shirley Brahms, a sales representative with a heavy Cockney accent. (Richard also appeared in the Are You Being Served? sequel Grace & Favour in 1992 and 1993.) Richard subsequently found continued success as heroine and matriarch Pauline Fowler on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role she played from the first episode in 1985 until the character's death at Christmas of 2006.

On July 10, 2006, the BBC announced that Richard had decided to leave EastEnders, after nearly 22 years in the show. An interview with The Sun revealed that problems with the EastEnders storyline (primarily her marriage to Joe Macer) was the main cause for her departure.

In 2004, Richard was referred to as "the worst wanker of them all" during Leslie Grantham's now infamous webcam chat to an undercover reporter.

In late 2006, Richard was seen as a guest presenter on the BBC's City Hospital series and on March 31, 2007, she presented the documentary A tribute to John Inman, for BBC2.

She has also given interviews for the first time in a number of years, making appearances on Big Brother's Little Brother, Loose Women, Parkinson and the Biography Channel special Gloria's Greats with Gloria Hunniford amongst others.

In April 2007, Richard announced that she would be appearing in a new role for the first time since leaving Eastenders. She is to play a part in a new Sitcom penned by David Croft called Here Comes The Queen. The project came about after she personally asked her good friend Croft to write something for her. Richard has commented that "the part is like an older version of Miss Brahms".