Born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, Littler trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and started her career working in repertory in provincial theatres around Britain, including Bolton, Darlington, Plymouth and Nottingham.

Nicholson, a Yorkshire housewife and mother, who had faced a constant struggle to keep her family's heads above water financially, won £152,316 on the football pools in 1961, but spent it all.

Littler's performance, bringing out Nicholson's vulnerabilities as well as her excesses, was highly praised by critics and earned her a 1977 BAFTA Best Television Actress nomination.

Littler's last TV appearances were The Quiet Days of Mrs. Stafford (an August 1981 ITV Playhouse feature), A Voyage Round My Father (1982) and Whale Music, broadcast posthumously in 1983.

[4] On 24 October 1982, Albert Finney hosted a special programme in Littler's memory at London's National Theatre, with proceeds donated to cancer research.