I went to see this film yesterday at a small viewing in the National Film Theatre in London, and was delighted to find that Vivian Nicholson - the football pools-winning subject of the film - was seated in the row behind me with family & friends, all joking (and sometimes singing) much of the way through. Though a granny now she still seems pretty lively & feisty.
How strange it must be to watch your life represented in fictional form, particularly with the numerous ups and downs (including violent drunken father, illegitimate children, a tragic death and several failed marriages) depicted here. Presumably the film must have been pretty accurate, since much of the dialogue was apparently quoted verbatim from transcripts of Vivian's personal account.
The film played the (then daring) temporal device of alternating scenes from Vivian's harsh early life with scenes of her decline & fall following the football pools win. At the time the director feared this might confuse the viewing public, but it turned out to be clear enough.
Apart from the surprise of finding Vivian herself behind me, the most striking thing about this film was just how well scripted and acted it was, despite being made on a shoestring (with no budget even for title music) and designed for one-off TV viewing. It deservedly won a BAFTA award in 1978. Together with the other best of the Play for Today films (such as Mike Leigh's Nuts in May), these strike me as classics which stand the test of time, much as the Ealing Comedies do. A shame that they are perceived as almost forgotten one-off TV dramas of their day rather than part of the cinema canon.