CALENDAR Girls has become a world-wide phenomenon. The tale of how a group of middle-class ladies from a Yorkshire WI stripped off for charity has won fans across the globe and raised more than £2m for Leukaemia Research.

The sensational play of the story comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on March 15 and tickets are selling fast.

I got a sneak preview in Birmingham and afterwards sat down to chat to three of its stars – Aston Abbotts girl and Oxo mum Lynda Bellingham, former EastEnders' star Letitia Dean and TV actress Jan Harvey (go to Buzz 2 on our website www.leightonbuzzardtoday.co.uk to read our exclusive interview with Lynda and read a review of the show in the Theatre Reviews section).

Letitia has a laugh like a fog horn. She's a bubbly blonde Home Counties girl, who honed her Cockney accent in EastEnders but is now sporting a full-throttle Yorkshire brogue that would do Nora Batty proud.

She's playing vicar's daughter and single mum Cora who strikes a chord for charity by posing topless at the piano.

Cora is feisty, rebellious and has a penchant for jazzing up hymns and falling out with her teenage daughter.

We last saw Tish as the Wicked Queen in Snow White at The Grove in 2008/9. "I really liked The Grove, it's a lovely theatre. I had a really nice time," she said.

Our conversation is peppered with raucous laughter from the now petite actress (she's gone from a Sharon Watts size 14 to at the most a size 10 and looks absolutely stunning).

"I'd seen the film when I was offered the part but I went along to see the show and fell in love with it.

"I really wanted to be a part of it. There's such camaraderie and its such a gorgeous story. I think the fact that it's a true story makes it more special.

"Cora is such a fun character. She's very ballsy and larger than life but just a little bit vulnerable. The great thing about the play is that you see everyone's story at some point."

There's been a lot of mileage given in the national press about the fact that the cast, ageing from 25-year-old former lingerie model and Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson to 66-year-old ex-Corrie and theatre actress Judith Barker strip off.

But you'll be disappointed if you're expecting a salacious full frontal peep show.

The scene, when the ladies of Napley WI pose for their calendar shots is over in a flash and so tastefully done that no-one's granny would be offended.

"It's a bit weird at first," said Tish, "but it's quite humorous. I was more worried about playing the right chords on the piano!

"The real women who did this calendar were from a very small village, not a cosmopolitan city, and if they could do it then so can we.

"It's not about showing off and thinking that we have glorious bodies (though both Letitia and co-star Hannah Waterman have lost a serious amount of weight and released fitness DVDs).

"We're all shapes and sizes. It's actually quite liberating and I think the audience can relate to that.

"Everybody has had or knows someone who has suffered from cancer. It's a bloody awful disease. My best friend's mother died of it a few years ago. I was very close to her and it was horrible.

"There are moments in the play when you'll get a lump in your throat but the northerners are like the Cockneys in that they find laughter through adversity and that's what's so special about this play.

"Tim Firth has written such an incredible script. One minute the audience will be crying and the next moment they will be laughing their heads off."

*TELEVISION actress Jan Harvey found fame in the 1980s sailing soap Howards Way. Since then she has appeared in a raft of regular series including Family Affairs, Bugs and Holby. She's also guest starred on Countdown.

Jan, 62, plays the grieving widow, Annie, who supports Chris's efforts to raise money in memory of Annie's husband, John.

"Annie really is Calendar Girls in that this is her story. When we first meet the girls they are all in the WI together. Annie's husband John, who is loved by all of the girls, is suffering from leukaemia.

"The play is driven by their desire to raise money to buy a settee in his name."

While the other stars get witty one-liners Jan's role is more intense.

"Annie is the one who will make you cry. She is fun and great but when you lose your husband your life is half, you're in a shadow. The girls are marvellously supportive of her and they really look after her.

"Calendar Girls is a fantastic story about friendship. It is about raising money but it's mostly about how women look after each other.

"I've had friends who have seen it and they've come out sobbing because it's very emotional.

"Tin Firth has written a wonderful play because you will laugh more because you've been crying and you'll cry more because you've been laughing. It's those two extremes of emotions put together that become enormously powerful.

"It's a really cathartic piece because I think people come out from this play feeling a lot better about life than when they went in."

The friendship on stage is very much a reflection of how the cast have got on together.

"We are incredibly close because it would be difficult to do this play well unless there was that sense of real friendship particularly among the six of us."

Jan said he had no fears about stripping off. "I've done it in a film and on TV. It's not something you ever really want to do because it's a bit of an invasion of your privacy but in this play it goes.

"When you're first approached about it you think, oh god, but it's such a brief moment where everyone is laughing and clapping. It isn't a sort of salacious thing, no prurience there. It's just a joyous moment when all these girls just go for it.

"It is a fabulous high spot. But we're stripping off all the time back stage. We have countless costume changes at break-neck speed. It's a joke back stage. There are boobies flying everywhere!"

Calendar Girls has provided opportunities to some actresses "of a certain age" who are fighting for recognition in a market place dictated by the young.

"It's extremely difficult for some of us. And now we have high definition cameras you just want to open a vein really and give up!

"It's so ridiculous isn't it? We are living in a culture where we're ashamed of getting older and it should be exactly the opposite.

"The play celebrates the older woman and the ordinary woman. It's perfect. It's really great stuff."

The Calendar Girls runs from March 15 to 27. For tickets contact the booking office 0844 871 7652 or go online at www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes