UK Theatre Network

Calendar Girls has become the most successful play ever to tour the United Kingdom and has taken more at the box office than the original film with ticket sales in excess of £21 million.  Following an award winning West End run, Calendar Girls is now touring the country and stars Lynda Bellingham, along with Jan Harvey, Michelle Collins, Ruth Madoc, Debbie Chazen and June Watson.

A group of ordinary women, members of a very ordinary Yorkshire WI, spark a global phenomenon by persuading one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference! As interest snowballs, the Calendar Girls find themselves revealing more than they’d ever planned…

Original star of Calendar Girls, Lynda Bellingham plays Chris, the instigator of the calendar, with great exuberance and comedy timing. She continues to present ITV’s popular afternoon chat show Loose Women. Other credits include the long running series of OXO television ads and Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small. Lynda grew up in Aylesbury and carried out the ‘topping out’ ceremony at the new theatre. She was very much looking forward to performing at the Waterside saying “This is a wonderful new theatre and the beginning of a new era of entertainment for Aylesbury. I will be so proud to stand on stage in my home town in such a magnificent venue”

In the show, Jan Harvey plays Annie, Chris’ best friend, whose husband dies from cancer, which triggers the idea of a nude calendar. Jan played Jan Howard in the BBC’s long running Howard’s Way. Other television credits include the BBC action series Bugs as well as Babs Woods in Family Affairs.

Michelle Collins is probably best known as Cindy Beale in EastEnders, a role she played for 11 years. Other credits include the TV series Real Women, Sunburn and Two Thousand Acres Under the Sky.  In Calendar Girls, she plays Cora and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she can not only do a very good Yorkshire accent, but was very believable and has a good singing voice.

 Ruth Madoc, best known as Gladys Pugh in Hi-De-Hi has more recently been seen on our screens as Dafydd’s mother in Little Britain.   Ruth plays the rather pretentious Marie, who opposes the calendar, but is eventually won around by its success.

Debbie Chazen’s recent credits include Annie in the BBC comedy The Smoking Room and a whole host of comic creations in the BBC sketch show Tittybangbang. In Calendar Girls, she plays the very put-upon Ruth, whose husband is cheating on her, but finally gets the courage to find her voice.

Some of the biggest laughs of the night go to June Watson, who plays the older, more serious character of Jessie.  She is one of the UK’s most versatile actresses and can frequently be seen on our screens. A few of her many credits include series of Strictly Confidential, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Brotherly Love.

Kathryn Rooney, Susan Bovell, Mikyla Dodd, John Labanowski, Michael Peluso and Colin Tarrant complete the cast.

It was a very entertaining and lively production, showing that  the predominately female audience really are crying out for more theatre and TV shows based around real women in real situations.  This truly is a very heart-warming true story and the very clever use of costumes and props in the photo shoot scene, was extremely funny.  These ladies prove that life really does begin at 40!

For details of the tour dates visit www.seecalendargirls.com

Next at the Waterside, it's the Rocky Horror Show and for tickets visit www.ambassadortickets.com/aylesbury or call 0844 871 7665.

Yvonne Delahaye