There can’t be many people who haven’t seen or heard of the 2003 British comedy film Calendar Girls, but Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical version of this hit Bill Kenwright production brings so much energy to the stage that it thoroughly deserved last night’s standing ovation at Milton Keynes Theatre.

      While the production is based on a true story, we start at the local branch meeting of the Women’s Institute where the usual traditions of cake baking, jam making and flower arranging – and Jerusalem singing! – come under the watchful eye of straight-laced leader Marie (Paula Tappenden). 

      But it’s the untimely death of John Clarke (Colin R Campbell), the popular husband of Annie (Tanya Franks) from leukaemia, that has a profound affect on this Yorkshire village.

       However it’s the rebellious Chris (Amy Robins) who comes up with the idea of producing a nude calendar in a bid to raise enough cash to purchase a comfortable new couch for the local hospital in John’s memory.

      Naturally emotions are tested as sorrow turns to laughter, the audience warming to each character as their feelings about being photographed naked are revealed.

      While the first act is a little slow, the audience warms to each character and            we learn that organ-playing Cora (Honeysuckle Weeks) has a problem.      teenage daughter.

      Meanwhile glamorous former air hostess Celia (Marti Webb) belts out So I’ve Had A Little Work Done… she’s is also the first to be photographed by Chris’s florist husband Ron (Graham MacDuff) when it’s a case of ‘More Iced Buns Please!’. 

      I loved the pure comedy as Maureen Nolan as ‘baking supremo’ Ruth sings to a vodka bottle in My Russian Friend and I while Tanya Franks as the emotional Annie gave a