Robinson began directing television episodes in 2000, when she helmed an episode of the British soap opera Doctors. From 2001 to 2004, she directed two more episodes of Doctors, along with episodes of Cutting It, No Angels, and Holby City. In 2004, Robinson directed the first half of the miniseries Blackpool. For this, she earned a BAFTA nomination for "Best Drama Serial". When the series was released to American audiences the following year under the name Viva Blackpool, Robinson was among the nominees for the Golden Globe for "Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television". Robinson and Blackpool Writer Peter Bowker planned to create a spin-off of the miniseries that would take place in Funny Girls, a burlesque cabaret featuring male drag performers located in the town of Blackpool; However, this never materialised. Also in 2004, Robinson directed the play How Love Is Spelt, which Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraph reported "risk[ed] becoming at once disjointed and schematic, but, in Julie Anne Robinson's full-bodied production, it keeps ringing painfully true to life."