Calendar Girls stripping off at Wolverhampton Grand

As Calendar Girls enters its last tour, calling in at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre this week, Lynda Bellingham talks about how attitudes towards it have changed.

They no longer come just to see her take off her clothes. At least, that's what she thinks.

There may be a few members of the audience who look forward to seeing a naked Jennifer Ellison, but there's not much the producers of Calendar Girls can do about that.

"You know," says Lynda Bellingham, the star of the ever-popular production, "When I started in Calendar Girls, three years ago, I used to think people only came to see us take off our clothes. But I no longer think that.

"I think it's a combination of the fact that it was a real story and Tim Firth, who wrote it, knows women, Yorkshire and the WI inside out.

"It taps into a reality that we can all relate to. Probably 90 per cent of the audience has been touched in some way by cancer, so it's a story that's familiar to us all.

"And Tim makes people laugh as much as he makes them cry. Laughter is the key."

Calendar Girls is on its final ever tour, which runs until May next year, with a stop-off at Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre from Monday, October 24, to October 29, 2011.

The cast alsos feature Debbie Chazen, Camilla Dallerup, Jennifer Ellison, Jan Harvey, Rula Lenska, Ruth Madoc and June Watson, with Bruno Langley as Lawrence the photographer and Joe McGann as John.

Lynda adds: "The audience response is always unbelievable and that's why I keep doing it. The cast changes all the time and every night it's a different audience.

"Last week we were in Belfast and the audiences were, well, they may have been drunk.

"There were groups of women and they applauded everything – even the sponge cakes.

"And to do that on stage is amazing, it's like scoring a goal at Wembley."

She's looking forward to being at the Grand, in Wolverhampton – a theatre she knows all too well.

"I enjoy the Grand very much. By the end of the tour, I'll have visited every old theatre in the country. It feels very melancholic because these days so many people tune into the X Factor, instead of supporting their local theatre.

"But I like to think there is a future for places like The Grand.

"They show productions that are real, that are not tainted by spin or air-brushing or media hype or manipulation.

"Theatre is all about slices of life that you don't always get to experience and I think that will always survive."

Once the curtain finally comes down on Calendar Girls, Lynda will have plenty to do. She'll be in panto in Birmingham this Christmas, making regular appearances on TV's Loose Women and has also been commissioned to write two novels.

For now, however, she's looking forward to her latest date with Calendar Girls. Tickets are available at www.grandtheatre.info or by calling 01902 429212.