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Calender Girls star Letitia Dean speaks to Bedford Times & Citizen
Eastenders star talks about stripping off on stage
The Calendar Girls has become a world-wide phenomenon. The tale of how a group of middle-class ladies from a Yorkshire WI stripped off for charity has won fans across the globe and raised more than 2m for Leukaemia Research.
The sensational play of the story comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on March 15 and tickets are selling fast.
I got a sneak preview in Birmingham this week and afterwards sat down to chat to former EastEnders' star Letitia Dean.
Letitia has a laugh like a fog horn. She's a bubbly blonde Home Counties girl, who honed her Cockney accent in EastEnders but is now sporting a full-throttle Yorkshire brogue that would do Norah Batty proud.
She's playing vicar's daughter and single mum Cora who strikes a chord for charity by posing topless at the piano.
Cora is feisty, rebellious and has a penchant for jazzing up hymns and falling out with her teenage daughter.
We last saw Tish as the Wicked Queen in Snow White at The Grove in 2008/9. "I really liked The Grove, it's a lovely theatre. I had a really nice time," she said.
Our conversation is peppered with raucous laughter from the now petite actress (she's gone from a Sharon Watts size 14 to at the most a size 10 and looks absolutely stunning).
"I'd seen the film when I was offered the part but I went along to see the show and fell in love with it.
"I really wanted to be a part of it. There's such camaraderie and its such a gorgeous story. I think the fact that it's a true story makes it more special.
"Cora is such a fun character. She's very ballsy and larger than life but just a little bit vulnerable. The great thing about the play is that you see everyone's story at some point."
There's been a lot of mileage given in the national press about the fact that the cast, ageing from 25-year-old former lingerie model and Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson to 66-year-old ex-Corrie and theatre actress Judith Barker strip off.
But you'll be disappointed if you're expecting a salacious full frontal peep show.
The scene, when the ladies of Napley WI pose for their calendar shots is over in a flash and so tastefully done that no-one's granny would be offended.
"It's a bit weird at first," said Tish, "but it's quite humorous. I was more worried about playing the right chords on the piano!
"The real women who did this calendar were from a very small village, not a cosmopolitan city, and if they could do it then so can we.
"It's not about showing off and thinking that we have glorious bodies (though both Letitia and co-star Hannah Waterman have lost a serious amount of weight and released fitness DVDs).
"We're all shapes and sizes. It's actually quite liberating and I think the audience can relate to that.
"Everybody has had or knows someone who has suffered from cancer. It's a bloody awful disease. My best friend's mother died of it a few years ago. I was very close to her and it was horrible.
"There are moments in the play when you'll get a lump in your throat but the northerners are like the Cockneys in that they find laughter through adversity and that's what's so special about this play.
"Tim Firth has written such an incredible script. One minute the audience will be crying and the next moment they will be laughing their heads off."
The Calendar Girls runs from March 15 to 27. For tickets contact the booking office 0844 871 7652 or go online at www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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