It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

"Must be the Essex girl within me," says Linda Clark as she contemplates another six months of watching four men taking their clothes off every night (twice nightly on Fridays and Saturdays).

For the last three years, Linda, an actress who hails from the Essex hamlet of Harlow, has been "minder" to a bunch of actor-strippers in the raucous comedy, Girls' Night Out.

"I was virtually a virgin when I started," she says. "I'd never even been to see the Chippendales."

The experience clearly affected her, though, because she has now signed up to join the cast of the sequel, Girls' Night Out in Ibiza.

There is mischief in her giggle as she confesses: "It's completely corrupted me."

The original play, a sort of theatrical hen night, has been playing to wildly enthusiastic, mostly female audiences up and down the country - and continues to do so, with a new cast.

The new version ups the ante still further, with a sitcom of a plot set in the seedy Balearic holiday capital of San Antonio.

Linda, once again, is Auntie Ivy, guardian to three fun-loving and impressionable nieces.

"She's won a holiday to Ibiza and she's taking the girls with her," she says. "They're going for sun, sand and whatever else they can get hold of.

"It's very light-hearted, and of course the boys get their kit off."

Since becoming Auntie Ivy in the original show, Linda has undertaken - purely in a professional capacity, of course - a study of the stripping profession.

"I've come to the conclusion that even though ours are just actors, they're much better than most full-time strippers," she says. "Their dance routines are so tight, you see."

Linda has not yet been to Ibiza. "I'm more of a quiet-holiday-in-Devon type," she maintains.

"All the same, there must be a bit of Auntie Ivy in me, even if it's just the hidden part. She says things that I'd love to but wouldn't dare.

"In the first play she was having an affair with her brother-in-law. She'd been married for 24 years but it was just plodding along and she felt that there must be something more to life.

But her brother-in-law had other ideas and she was let down at the end. Now, it's six months later, she's divorced and she thinks she's got her freedom.

"But she's revealed in this play to be quite a vulnerable character."

The typical Girls' Night Out audience, says Linda, consists of just that - girls enjoying themselves on an inhibition-free outing.

"They come in parties from shops and offices, they leave their fellers behind to look after the kids, and they don't have to give a second thought to anything.

"They're a bit rowdy sometimes, but it's a nice environment. After all, what harm could come to them in a theatre?"

l Girls' Night Out in Ibiza is at the Alhambra, Bradford, from February 9-13. Tickets are bookable on 01274 752000.

David Behrens

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