Lynda Bellingham: Nude and loving it with the Calendar Girls
“Our children can be terribly embarrassed if we do anything which makes us different so to pose naked for a calendar was such a brave step.
“Tricia writes about when they did the nude scene and says they all drank a bit too much wine before having the photographs taken. We can’t do that on stage of course.
“But you know as actresses we know that there are times when we may have to do nude scenes. ‘It is part of our psyche that it may happen but for them it was something totally unexpected.
“But they have since raised more than two-and-a-half million pounds for charity so their achievement is incredible.”
Lynda may be happy posing on stage behind a sunflower but she admits to being less confident when she became a contestant on the television series Strictly Come Dancing last year.
“I wasn’t actually worried about the dancing part as I am quite fit. In fact the worst part for me was having to go out there every Saturday night in a dress where it was impossible to hide the bad bits.
“I refuse to diet to the point where I would have to if I were a film star but it did take me a while to feel comfortable. I think in the end it was actually confidence-building
‘‘But then that is because if you don’t look in the mirror you can believe you are Bridget Bardot or Jane Fonda in those dresses.”
Knocked out in the fourth week, Lynda would have liked her experience to have lasted longer.
“I did feel sorry that I went out when I did and would have liked to have stayed in a couple more weeks,” she says.
“I was just getting to the point where I had gone from learning to dance to actually dancing. I was past the nerves.
“The show is not about being the perfect dancer, it is about people’s experience in becoming a dancer. If we were all experts at the beginning it would be a different type of show.”
Lynda was partnered with professional dancer Darren Bennett – who proved to be a hard taskmaster.
“He is lovely but he is also a perfectionist. He wouldn’t let me get away with anything.
‘‘He said to me right from the beginning that he was going to treat me the same as he would a professional dancer and that is the best way to do it.”
But since leaving the series last autumn, Lynda has not had much chance to pull on those dancing shoes again.
“I haven’t had time,” she sighs. “But it is very useful when I am doing charity events and I can dance.
‘‘I can actually charge people to put a few pounds in the pot and then have a go.”
Calendar Girls plays Birmingham Hippodrome from February 22- 27, tickets: 0844 338 5000, www.birminghamhippodrome.com
