First it was the WI calendar, then it was Nigel Cole’s film, later a successful stage show emerged from Chichester – and now we have the amateur productions.

The play has become available for just 18 months from the beginning of September for amateurs to have a go at being the Calendar Girls and in the process raise money for charity, following in the footsteps of the intrepid Yorkshire ladies who originated the idea of a slightly naughty but very nice calendar to raise funds in memory of a member’s husband.

TJ productions had the honour of giving the local premiere in Littlehampton.

The play is in two very separate halves. The decision to make the calendar and its celebrated shooting are before the interval. The show could beneficially end there, but it then sadly degenerates into all-purpose melodrama with the girls’ trials and tribulations given the full soap opera treatment. The charm of the original idea is lost in the process.

There’s not a lot the cast can do about this but act it with commitment, which is what they duly do in Mike Wells’s efficient production. Ably led by Julie Waite as the abrasive Chris, with Ruth Roberts nicely contrasted as the gentler Annie, the six girls’ individual characters are clearly delineated. There is good backing from other members, who have the thankless task of playing the assorted male supporters and female villains.

Overall, great performances, pity about the script.