They set out to buy a decent sofa for visitors to the cancer ward at a Yorkshire hospital. Now the ‘calendar girl’ strippers of Rylstone Women’s Institute have raised a massive £3m for leukaemia research. The impressive figure was displayed during the curtain call for Calendar Girls, the play telling the story of this well-planned fundraising wheeze. It brought a round of applause from all the players who had given us this heart-warming piece.

The show itself is scarcely less of a phenomenon. Adapted by playwright Tim Firth from his and co-writer Juliette Towhidi’s script for a smash hit film of the same name, the play has proved a huge success since 2008 on tour and in the West End. This week, it’s packing in the punters at Milton Keynes — ideal for those such as I who missed it last year at Oxford’s New Theatre. (It’s also at the Wycombe Swan, with a new cast, soon.) Lynda Bellingham is on cracking form as the feisty florist Chris who persuades colleagues in the WI to strip off in a good cause after her friend Annie (Trudie Goodwin) loses husband John (Joe McGann) to cancer. By turns touching and comic, she is but one of many stars on view here. I particularly relished Ruth Madoc as the snobbish and disapproving head of the WI chapter, Jennifer Ellison as the eye-popping golfing beauty Celia and Lisa Riley as the dumpy Bible-basher Ruth who surprises everyone with her sudden conversion to the cause.