The original Calendar Girls have raised almost £6 million for blood cancer research since their calendar was conceived in 1999, in memory of dales devotee and Yorkshire Dales National Park Officer, John Baker. Capturing the attention and imagination of the world, it’s worth revisiting how those first brave and unsuspecting ladies’ inspirational stunt gathered such momentum.
When Angela Baker lost her husband to non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1998, naturally fellow members of the Rylstone & District Women’s Institute rallied round to support her. Her close friend and neighbour Tricia Stewart came up with the idea of a charity fundraiser calendar with a difference to celebrate John’s love of life. Lynda Logan’s artist and photographer husband, Terry Logan was on hand to turn the concept into reality.
Photographed at the Logan’s idyllic cottage in Threshfield, each of the middle-aged ladies was depicted tantalisingly naked with their modesty discreetly and tastefully hidden by the props of various traditional WI-themed activities from jam-making to flower arranging. The soft sepia shots were all characterised by pearls and a colourful yellow sunflower and witty caption. The resulting ‘Alternative WI Calendar’ was a simply stunning revelation showing beauty does not begin and end with youth.
The original fundraising target for the subtly cheeky calendar was £5000. It actually raised more than £300,000 before the year 2000 was over, as the story hit the national press and the world’s spotlight turned upon them.
In 2003 with backing from Disney, Harbour Pictures released their film Calendar Girls, featuring a star-studded cast headed by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters and with a dash of artistic license embellishing the story. Among the extras appearing the film were some of the original girls and several members of Grassington Players.
The associated fundraising went to a whole new level, with six of the ‘real’ girls becoming stars in their own right. Always smartly attired in black and displaying their distinctive sunflower emblem, they tirelessly attended functions far and wide to support the charity – including jet-setting to the States to appear on Jay Leno’s chat show.
Just a few years later the stage play was released in the West End in 2009 with another spin on the story by the same script writer, Tim Firth.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the original, Terry and the girls produced a new calendar in 2010 featuring the remaining fundraising ladies; a decade on and still beautiful.
In 2012, Grassington Players staged the amateur world premiere of the play to much acclaim. It then went on to be performed more than any other play by amateur dramatic societies across the world, with more than 500 productions, all raising funds for the charity.
Eventually (thinking it was all over) the charity staged a glamorous tribute event at the Albert Hall, to thank the ‘real girls’ as they officially retired from the fundraising work that had dominated their lives for more than twelve years. But then, when they’d barely had time to hang up their sunflowers, Tim Firth had a chat with his old school pal, Gary Barlow of Take That fame, and suddenly it was very far from all over.
Bringing the story to life again, Barlow and Firth brought their cast and stage set to Burnsall village hall in March 2015 to perform a pilot version of a new musical to an invited audience. Afterwards those guests – including the original Girls and several Grassington Players members including yours truly – were asked to provide feedback on our favourite songs to help shape the final professional show.
The Girls opened at Leeds Grand in 2015, went on to the West End in 2017 and was then adapted for touring the provinces as Calendar Girls: The Musical.
Grassington Players’ links to the original girls go back a long, long way. Beryl Bamforth, aka the real Miss January, joined the amateur dramatic society in 1970. She is now its longest serving member. John and Angela Baker were former members and Beryl fondly recalls directing Angela in There Goes the Bride, a production they took to a Drama Festival, where she was “dressed as a dolly bird”. You could say the stage was set for their future exploits.
Mark Bamforth (playing Rod) & Beryl Bamforth (original Miss January) at Town Hall
Beryl was 65 and the oldest of the original girls when the 2000 calendar was made. Her am dram confidence meant she was not in the least bit fazed. Her equivalent character, Jessie, in the fictional adaption, will be played in the forthcoming show by Jennifer Scott, herself even older at 77. She also played the character nine years ago when we staged the play.
Alongside a few new faces and professional directorial talent drafted in, in the form of Anita Adams and Mike Gilroy, our cast of nineteen features seven of the same members from that production. Among them, my significant other and Beryl’s son, Mark Bamforth, plays Rod while I reprise the role of Annie, the fictional character representing Angela Baker (played in the film by Julie Walters).
COVID has challenged our production, as it has countless others. Originally we auditioned and rehearsals were underway for performance in May 2020. Eventually, with the show rescheduled for this September, we were only able to restart rehearsals in July, with a few cast and crew adjustments due to changes in availability. Initially working on Zoom and then only permitted to meet in groups of just six, it was a challenging start.
As we all begin to emerge into the new post-lockdown world, the uplifting nature of this show is all the more meaningful for the audience and performers. There is added poignancy and irony in that cancer has directly impacted on our production too. Cast member Paula Vickers, originally reprising the role of Chris, had to drop out of rehearsals early last year to undergo gruelling treatment for throat cancer. Happily, eighteen months on she has recovered sufficiently to drop into the role of Cora for this year’s revised show dates. Tragically, however, the original set designer, our beloved Andrew Jackson, died of lung cancer in March. A retired GP, he had also been John Baker’s doctor. Then, during rehearsals, cast member Lottie Cuerden (playing wayward teen, Jenny) lost her mother, Bev Cuerden; another Grassington Players member who had fought the disease for four years. Penny Hart-Woods, who plays the ‘Helen Mirren’ role in the production, recently underwent treatment for breast cancer – so to be baring all now is particularly brave.
Main image: The Grassington Players Calendar Girls by Heidi Marfitt Photography, with thanks to the Vyvyans.