BLAKE Drama Club performed Calendar Girls to packed and delighted audiences at Bridgwater Arts Centre.

The show has been released to amateur groups for a limited period only so it was particularly pleasing that Bridgwater theatre-goers should have a chance to see it.

The cast, ably directed by Jillian Rowe, included some new faces alongside those more familiar locally and the theatre rocked with laughter, tears and applause as the story unfolded.

Everyone knows the story of how a group of extraordinary women from a Yorkshire Women’s Institute group persuade one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference.

The ‘Calendar Girls’, as they became known, initially aimed to generate funds to buy a new sofa for Skipton General Hospital but have ended up raising millions of pounds for Leukaemia Research.

Part of the royalties from the four performances by Blake Drama Club went to the charity and members of the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Yeovil branch, held a red bucket collection after each performance as well as selling Calendar Girls merchandise.

Their branch alone has raised a staggering £750,000.

ADRIAN PATTEN