"I was asked to do Calendar Girls and I had seen the film, and I was thrilled to be offered the Helen Mirren role," says Lynda.

"But having said that, the first thing I did was read the book by (real-life Calendar Girl) Tricia Stewart. I wanted to go back to the basics. After reading the book, I had a clean sheet really to work on."

To watch an interview with Lynda Bellingham at the rehearsals Bishop Luffa School click on the green button.

The 2003 film starring Mirren, Julie Waters and Celia Imrie was the true story of the Yorkshire Women's Institute members who stripped off to pose for a charity calendar.

Of course, in essence, the stage version will tell the same tale, but inevitably the demands and the advantages of the theatre will bring in important changes.

Film called for a couple of stars; theatre allows the story to be much more the ensemble piece it was in real life, the tale of a group of women.

"They had to cast the film with names that were famous because they needed to raise the money, but with the play you have more of a feeling that everyone is important.

"What is wonderful is that at the most unexpected moments you have one woman's story and then suddenly someone else divulges something.

"In the nature of it being a film you had close-ups and you could do two-shots. What we have here (in the play) is something much more organic. We are mostly on the stage at the same time."

And so what the play gives you more than the film ever could is the interaction: "There is this feeling of these women arriving. It really brings home to you what a big deal it is.

"In this day and age where everybody is exposed, where every part
of people's anatomy is examined on a daily basis in the media, what you get in the play is that wonderful moment of holding your breath as somebody takes off their clothes."

The other thing that you get more immediately in the play, Lynda feels, is the sense of what the whole experience does to the women, the pressures that it puts on the central friendship, the rift between the
Mirren/Walters characters, the effect on their families.

"Chris (Lynda's character) really has to re-examine herself."

Puzzling their husbands, mortifying their children, and riding the wrath of the outraged WI, the women spark a global phenomenon. But as media interest snowballs, the Calendar Girls find themselves exposed
in ways they'd never expected, revealing more about themselves than they'd ever planned.

Are these pressures which Lynda has ever suffered as an actress?

Recent interviews have seen her detail her recent remarriage and some of the darker, more difficult moments in her life.

But Lynda's answer is no – and for the simple reason that celebrity was absolutely not what she sought in becoming an actress.

"The thing that I find most intrusive about the press and also quite sad is that there is a whole generation of young people that want to be
famous.

"I left school wanting to be an actress, wanting to learn a craft. I never thought about all the rest and how it should be dealt with.

"But it is a sad fact that a lot of people who are celebrities have found they just can't live without their own celebrity."

Gaynor Faye interview click here.

Calendar Girls will be at Chichester Festival Theatre from September 5-27.

For more details and tickets ring the box office on 01243 781312.

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