Lynda Bellingham to star in 'Calendar Girls' West End stage show

London, Aug 5 : Dame Helen Mirren and Julie Walters' hit film 'Calendar Girls,' about an intrepid group of Women's Institute members who stripped off for charity, is to become a West End stage show.

Lynda Bellingham, the actress and former Oxo mum, will take up the role of Helen Mirren, and joining her on the stage would be Patricia Hodge, Sian Phillips and Gaynor Faye.

Actresses will shed their clothes on stage, but their blushes will be spared by some strategically placed cakes, knitting and flower arrangements.

"It's a play that offers decent roles to women of a certain age," the Telegraph quoted Bellingham, as saying.

"I think it's going to be empowering, not just for us but for the audience as well. I hope they stand up and cheer when we take our clothes off," she added.

The award-winning film is based on the true story of Angela Baker and Tricia Stewart, who came up with the idea of a naked charity calendar to raise money after Baker's husband died from cancer.

They enlisted fellow members of the Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire and hoped to raise a few hundred pounds for their local hospital.

The show opens at the Chichester Festival Theatre on September 16 and will tour the country before reaching the West End later in the year.

ANI