Karen Meagher is an English actress, sometimes credited as Karen Meacher. Her first acting role was playing a skivvy in the 1979 television series The Mallens. This was followed by role playing teacher Miss Broom in the BBC's '80s children's programme Johnny Briggs. She also played Lou Beale in the EastEnders special Civvy Street, a spin-off that was filmed in 1988 but set in 1942. Meagher is perhaps best known in Britain for the role of Ruth Beckett in the 1984 BBC nuclear war drama Threads. At the time she was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was passionately committed to making a statement about the dangers of nuclear war in the United Kingdom. She also later appeared in a film outlining the risks attached to nuclear power; Chernobyl: The Final Warning. Since then she has had many television and film roles including playing Inspector Murchison in Heartbeat, Grace Poole in a recent adaption of Wide Sargasso Sea, as well as smaller roles in Dalziel and Pascoe, Carrie's War, Down to Earth, Doctors, The Bill and Bad Girls.