He recommended her to his colleague Tom Walls, who was in search of a leading lady to succeed Yvonne Arnaud in his series of farces at the Aldwych Theatre, London.

[2] Over the next five years she was a member of the ensemble in musical comedies at the Winter Garden Theatre, with small roles in the hit show Sally (1921) and then in The Beauty Prize (1923), both of which starred Leslie Henson.

[2] When she returned to England, Henson recommended Shotter to his co-producer Tom Walls for the ingenue role of Rhoda Marley in the new Aldwych farce, Rookery Nook.

[6] As her successor, Shotter made an immediate impact: in the words of The Times, "This was 1926, and it was considered delightfully shocking that an actress should make her first appearance in a play in a pair of pyjamas.

"[4] Her colleague Molly Weir recalled her as "an enchanting 'flapper' who had to be hidden for fear of discovery by prim visiting relatives, and she sent the house into screams of warning appreciative laughter as she raced downstairs from the bedroom and across the stage clad only in exquisitely revealing pink crepe-de-Chine camiknickers.

"[7] Shotter remained a member of the Aldwych company for the next six years, playing roles written expressly for her in six farces by Ben Travers and two by others.

Shotter appeared in films of Rookery Nook (1930), Plunder (1931) and A Night Like This (1932), directed by Walls and featuring the principals of the Aldwych company.

[11] In the West End, Shotter starred in a series of plays, including Wodehouse's Good Morning, Bill, with Lawrence Grossmith, in a 1934 revival.

The role was poorly written,[13] and she returned to comedy in plays including High Temperature at the Duke of York's Theatre, in which, according to Ivor Brown in The Observer, "Miss Winifred Shotter has mainly to be under-clad and over-worried, which she does very prettily.

Her later West End appearances included the role of Barbara Fane in a 1954 revival of Ian Hay's 1936 comedy, Housemaster, with Jack Hulbert.