Laura Davis meets three Calendar Girls preparing to strip off on the Empire stage

DESPITE the Calendar Girls story bringing so much joy to film and stage show audiences, it started with a moment of great sadness.

John Baker, who up to that point rarely suffered from illness, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Shocked by this terrible news, his many friends in the close-knit North Yorkshire village where he lived, got themselves into action.

Most surprising was the local Women’s Institute, who decided to create a calendar in the style of Pirelli to raise funds for the Leukaemia Research Fund.

On an October night in 1998, eleven women met at the home of local artist Terry Logan prepared to bare all for a good cause.

Sadly, John did not live long enough to witness the fruits of their labours, nor the hot property their story has become.

Telling their tale when the Calendar Girls stage show tours to the Liverpool Empire next month is a cast that includes Liverpool-born Jean Boht – best known for playing Ma Boswell in Carla Lane’s TV show Bread. She plays Jessie, the senior Calendar Girl, and the retired village schoolŠteacher.

“People have said to me that Jessie has the best lines in the Šshow. She tends to exit with a witty Šone-liner,” she says.

“But if you think that a line is funny, then it will never work. You have to play the situation rather than the joke.”