Calendar Girls the Musical heads for Bradford Alhambra

Little could the ladies of the Rylstone and District WI have known, back in 1999 when they posed for a nude calendar - placed behind a plate of buns here, an apple press there - that they would go on to sell copies of it worldwide, make millions for charity and inspire a hit film, the fastest-selling play in British theatre history, and a musical.

Not to mention countless copycat calendars by everyone from yoga instructors to firefighters, none of which ever had the impact of the WI original.

The Calendar Girls became a global phenomenon. Now a musical version of their story, written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth is heading for Bradford.

With a cast that includes Lyn Paul of The New Seekers, Maureen Nolan and Foyle’s War star Honeysuckle Weeks, this is a bittersweet but ultimately inspiring account of the story of the WI members who peeled off cashmere cardigans and sensible bras and posed nervously among cake stands, teapots and balls of knitting, for a cheeky calendar they didn’t expect to be seen beyond their Dales community.

Maureen Nolan is one of the stars of the show (Image: BKL)

It went on to sell-out worldwide, raising £5 million for Leukaemia Research and revolutionising charity fundraising.

At the heart of the musical are the friendships binding six women who each find themselves reflecting on their own lives as their WI adventure takes off. They include recently widowed Annie; her best pal Chris, who means well but sometimes gets carried away; Celia, gleefully ruffling feathers at the golf club; and Cora, a no-nonsense single mum.

The show explores the impact of the calendar on the women and their families (Image: BKL)

I saw the musical at its world premiere in 2015, and wondered what could possibly be left to say about the story that had already inspired a film and a play. But I soon found this show to be the most moving version of all.

Sitting a few seats from Angela Baker and her children, I was struck by how something so wonderful could come from something so sad as the loss of a husband and father. It was John Baker’s death from leukaemia, aged 53, that led Angela, Tricia Stewart and other members of their WI near Skipton to take a deep breath and bare all for their calendar.

The show explores the impact of Calendar Girls story on the women’s families and village community. It’s a story of middle-age, with an inter-generational strand. Performed on a stage bathed in sunflowers, symbol of the Calendar Girls - John Baker started growing them after his diagnosis and gave them to family and friends, so they chose the sunflower in tribute to him - the show had the audience weeping and laughing.

Tim Firth’s involvement with Calendar Girls began when he wrote the 2003 film, with a starry cast headed by Julie Walters and Helen Mirren. Now Tim and Gary Barlow, who are old friends, have re-worked this new production of Calendar Girls the Musical for a UK tour.

Here, Tim tells us about the show and the inspiration behind its reimagining:

“There was something in the heart of lockdown that was all about time; about suddenly being dumped with a container load of it, about managing that, not resenting it, realising you were lucky to have it and not to waste it, if you were well enough to enjoy it.

Of course, it’s only looking back that we can get that kind of perspective. For the pair of us it just presented as an inexplicable urge to DO stuff - to write, to plot new work and to re-examine work that already existed.

This led us to new projects such as the one man show A Different Stage, and it also turned our heads back towards Calendar Girls the Musical.

Now, by this time it was a good few years since we had written the show and there was justifiable trepidation in returning to the project.

After all, it had been in the West End, done a national tour and was due to be performed by many companies around the UK if and when lockdown finished.

However, that UK was going to have changed. The world had. It was a time of global reboot. The planet had been attacked by a unilateral force in a way that had never really happened before, and the indiscriminate nature of that assault had done something fundamental to our perception of boundaries. Or borders. Of sticking to parameters that already existed.

A strange sense of liberation came out of the confinement that meant we thought: ‘Whatever you’re thinking, just try it’ Take the chance. Have a fresh look. Take the jump.’

Maybe we’ll never get that sense of empowerment again. It was like the bravery you have when starting out as a kid and feel you have nothing to lose.

That was it; the spirit we momentarily regained meant we re-wrote like we had nothing to lose. In a sense we were led by the words of Dare, one of the songs in the show; something about taking a jump without the fear meaning you stand a better chance of making a landing on the other side.

Well, this is where we landed, relieved it was all still intact, grateful to have a producer willing to mount it and excited at the prospect of reimagining the staging and the sound of a now-familiar story.

During previews our agent, Alan, texted, having noticed that it was 15 years since the first night of the stage version (the play) of Calendar Girls. I said I can’t believe all these years later we’re still here rewriting it.

But to be honest it’s a privilege that we are, and that the story is so unique in that regard.

The film is now 20-years-old, the real girls more than 20 years older, but their story, like their sunflowers, seems to keep re-seeding of its own accord.

“And when it does, the flower is always, always the same. It’s only the shape that changes.”

* Calendar Girls the Musical is at the Alhambra from January 30 to February 3. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk