Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 – 20 September 2002) was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre".

She also conceived and developed along with architect Cedric Price the Fun Palace, an experimental model of participatory social environment that, although never realized, has become an important influence in Architecture of the 20th and 21st Centuries.^{[citation needed]}

Littlewood was born at Stockwell, London, England and trained as an actress at RADA but left after an unhappy start and moved to Manchester in 1934 where she met folksinger Jimmie Miller who would later become known as Ewan MacColl. After joining his troupe, Theatre of Action, Littlewood and Miller were soon married. After a brief move to London, they returned to Manchester and set up the Theatre Union in 1936.

In 1941, Littlewood was banned from broadcasting on the BBC. The ban was lifted two years later when MI5 said she had broken off her association with the Communist Party. She was under surveillance by MI5 from 1939 until the 1950s.

Barbara Ann Deeks, (born 6 August 1937) better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Born in Shoreditch, London in 1937, Windsor was the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, formerly Rose Ellis, a dressmaker. Windsor is of English and Irish ancestry. She passed her 11-plus exams with the highest marks in North London, and won a place at Our Lady’s Convent in Stamford Hill. Her mother paid for her to have elocution lessons, and she trained at the Aida Foster School in Golders Green, making her stage debut at 13 and her West End debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Love From Judy.

Her first film role was in The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, coming to prominence in their stage production Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood's film Sparrers Can't Sing in 1963, achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the 1964 film comedy Crooks in Cloisters, the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the sitcoms The Rag Trade and Wild, Wild Women. In 1980, Windsor appeared as "Saucy Nancy" in the second series of Worzel Gummidge.

Stella Duffy is a writer and performer born in London who spent her childhood in New Zealand before returning to the UK.

Born to a New Zealander father and an English mother, Duffy is the youngest in a family of seven children. The family moved to New Zealand when Duffy was five, and Duffy later returned to London. She studied English Literature and Drama at Victoria University, Wellington. Duffy is a practising Buddhist and lives in Lambeth with her partner, playwright Shelley Silas.

She has written twelve novels – seven literary novels published by Virago and Sceptre and five crime novels in the Saz Martin series, published by Serpent's Tail. She has also written forty-five short stories, ten plays, and many feature articles and reviews. With Lauren Henderson she co-edited the fiction anthology Tart Noir (2002). Her own short story in that collection, Martha Grace, was awarded the 2002 Crime Writers' Association's Macallan Short Story Dagger.Singling out the Couples was shortlisted for the 1999 James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award. State of Happiness was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize, as was The Room of Lost Things in 2008. She adapted the film script of State of Happiness for Fiesta Productions. The first novel in her Saz Martin series, Calendar Girl, was voted fifth equal in the 2007 international poll The Big Gay Read. She won Stonewall Writer of the Year 2008 for The Room of Lost Things and in 2010 for Theodora, Actress, Empress, Whore.