Calendar Girls

It might be based on the true story of the ordinary Yorkshire housewives who decided to pose naked for charity, but 'Calendar Girls' can be most accurately summarised as a female version of 'The Full Monty' (1997). Which means that while it'll never be considered particularly original, this bawdy good natured comedy errs on the right side of familiar and gently seduces the audience.

Chris (Helen Mirren) and Annie (Julie Walters) are a couple of decidedly unenthusiastic members of the Women's Institute, who find it difficult to take almost anything seriously. That changes when Annie's husband (John Alderton) develops leukaemia and Chris gets an idea as how to raise wonga for the hospital in which he was treated. In true Full Monty-esque fashion, she gets a group of local ladies to take pose in the nip for an alternative calendar, despite the reservations of husbands; the embarrassment of children and the disgust of a stuffy local politician.

The story remains alarmingly slight throughout, but the sheer gameness of the superb cast and the real wit of some of the exchanges makes Calendar Girls a treat coated in a gruff earthy lilt. That Helen Mirren, though. It's apt that the character she plays takes any excuse to whip her kit off. And she still does it so well.