Monday saw the opening of Calendar Girls, the played based on the film, on its final UK tour at the Bristol Hippodrome.

The now familiar story of the ladies of the WI in the Yorkshire Dales who, following the death of one of their members husbands, decide to raise some money for a new seat in the local hospitals visitors room. After a bit of persuasion they decide to produce a nude calendar of themselves. They received worldwide publicity for their calendar and raised more money than they ever imagined enough to build a new wing on the hospital. Since that first calendar was printed in 1998, over £3 million has been raised for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

Lynda Bellingham of TV’s Loose Woman plays Chris who comes up with the idea of the calendar after the death of her friend Annie’s husband John played by Jan Harvey and Joe McGann. McGann’s performance John Baker through his illness and death was sensitively portrayed. On Monday the character of Ruth normally played by Lisa Riley was played by Debbie Chazen. She was very funny as played the prudish role brilliantly.

The play took the audience on a gentle roller coaster ride of emotions with sometime’s almost slapstick moments of comedy intertwined with tear inducing moments. The skill was not staying in the moment to long.

The most anticipated part of the play was, of course, the photo session, which was hilarious. Strategically placed buns, flowers and flags covered the important parts, but only just.

Particularly poignant was the scene with letters gently falling from above onto the stage representing the hundreds of letters of support the ladies received from the public Calendar Girls takes you on a journey through the lives of ordinary people and shows you how they cope in extraordinary circumstances. This brilliant performance certainly gets the audience emotionally involved in both the sad and funny sides of life.

Calendar Girls is running at the Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday May 12.