We've seen it - but you still have to wait

It's safe to say that the get-together at the Tutbury studios of our photographer Tilley Bancroft last night was a HUGE success.

Fuelled by Sonja's ginger cake, biscuits tea and coffee, the ladies nervously gathered to see the final shots chosen for the calendar.

And they loved them!!

But I'm afraid to say that the rest of you have to wait until later in the year when the calendar is printed and launched. We'll have some more details for you about that.

After all the excitement of the 'reveal'  most of us headed off to local pub, The Dog and Partridge for a drink to make the most of the warm summer evening.

The touring company is coming to Derby

If you've never seen the professional production of Calendar girls then you're in for a treat, it's coming to Derby in September this year. Many of us in the Little Theatre Company went to see this production last year at Nottingham and it's a stellar cast and one not to be missed. Check out Derby Live for full dates and prices.

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth

The global phenomenon comes to Derby

Calendar Girls has been the fastest selling tour ever and has triumphed in the West End. Now, it's coming to Derby starring Lesley Joseph as Miss October, Sue Holderness as Miss February, Ruth Madoc as Miss March, Kathryn Rooney as Miss September, Camilla Dallerup as Miss May, Helen Fraser as Miss January, Deena Payne as Miss July and Kacey Ainsworth as Miss November, with Kevin Sacre as Lawrence the photographer
A group of ordinary women do something extraordinary and spark a global phenomenon when they persuade one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference! Based on an inspiring true story and the smash hit film, Calendar Girls is quirky, poignant and hilarious. Calendar Girls has sold out in every theatre it's visited before opening. Don't miss out and book today for the show the Mail on Sunday said is "marvellous theatre, guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and come out singing Jerusalem!"
"A show I could see over and over again - and I hope I will!" Sir Cliff Richard
"Lots of laughs and a few tears. This show should be on everyone's calendar" June Whitfield CBE
"Funny, charming and a touching tribute to the fundraising efforts of a group of extraordinary, ordinary women" Ian Hislop

Great Hall

Monday 24 September to Saturday 29 September

7.30pm, Wed & Sat Matinee 2.30pm

Tickets: £15.25 - £28.25. Mon–Thu evening/Sat Mat £17.25–£26.25, Fri & Sat evening £19.25–£28.25, Wed Mat £15.25–£23.25

Concessions: Tickets cost more when booked via telephone or in person at box office. See our Ts & Cs for details.

Book now

Burton Calendar Girls on social media

Well, now we've done the brave bit and had our photos taken, the next challenge is making sure we sell ALL the print run and raise lots of money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

So, with that in mind we're spreading the word on social media and we'd be really pleased if you would become our fan on Facebook...

...and follow us on Twitter.

It's two more ways to stay in touch with all the news as we continue along the route to seeing our calendar published. We'd love to hear from you - so do feel free to leave a comment on this blog, send us a tweet or post on our Page.

Almost there

Having decided on the 12 shots for the Calendar, Elaine, Tilley and myself had a get together last Friday to decide on the final layout of the Calendar. Tilley has designed the most wonderful front cover and we decided that the back cover would be "dressing gown" shots of each of us as we were preparing for our pictures to be taken. We wanted also to make sure that we thanked everyone that we needed to thank, some very wonderful and generous people have given their resources and their valuable time to make this the best it could be. Briefly, Tilley, Sheelagh and Elaine but so many more people we're very grateful to. We know that the finished Calendar will be something we will all be very proud of.

We had also decided that it would be nice if every lady had a souvenir of their own picture, so in a couple of weeks time we're all meeting at Tilley's Red Door Studios where everyone can see all the pictures taken and choose which one they'd like for posterity. We're anticipating that that will be a fun night and afterwards we shall be visiting a local hostelry to raise a glass to a job well done.

And Miss January is.........?

What a difficult task Elaine, Tilley and myself had last week. As is the norm Ken was on coffee duty and my dining room was the scene of some serious deliberations. Tilley had all the shots she'd taken and our task was to whittle them down to a few and then choose the best photograph of each pose. You'd think that would've been fairly easy to do, no such luck, every single picture taken could've gone in the Calendar, Tilley's pictures were unbelievable, the difference that her terrific lighting made without doubt, made every single shot.

 To put everything on a fair playing field and so that Elaine, Tilley and myself didn't get to choose our own pictures, Tilley and myself chose the shot of Elaine, to see Elaine sitting there hugging a teddy bear with an excrutiating look on her face while the two of us picked over her shots was hilarious, too bad I didn't have my camera to capture that expression. Of course then Tilley and I had to wait with bated breath while Elaine chose our shot. Two hours later and after much deliberation we finally had our 12 amazing poses.

And so to choose who should star in which month, our idea behind this was largely taken to make the calendar as interesting as possible, to fit in each month so that it flowed nicely with the month before and so here is the final selection.

January           -     Elaine
February         -     Joyce
March             -     Katie,Jane, Chris, Dawn
April               -     Hannah
May                -     Karen
June                -     Jodie and Sarah
July                 -    Vicky
August            -     Sonja
September      -     Bethan
October          -     Carol and Tilley
November       -     Heather
December       -     The Girls

Here come the girls.......

The first shot taken on Sunday at our photo shoot, this is as much as you get unless you buy the Calendar later in the year. Aren't we a fine bunch?

WE DID IT!!!!

Oh my goodness, where to start. 9am yesterday our ladies arrived at the Brewhouse, there was an awful lot of " what the heck are we doing?" " did we really say we'd do this?" But they all came armed with dressing gowns ( we didn't need clothes) food and drink and all with smiles and laughter.

We had a little pre-shoot chat when Tilley explained how the day would go. We decided to do our group shot in the auditorium first so that everyone could get in the mood and help lose their inhibitions a little. Sheelagh, our wonderful make up lady was on standby to start making us beautiful. So, bedecked in our dressing gowns Tilley arranged us and with only a Little Theatre Company programme to hide our modesty Tilley said those words "Ok ladies let's do it, take off your robes", without hesitation every one of us stood up and got naked, I can't begin to tell  you how unbelievably proud of everyone I was, we just did it, posed with our programmes and "Voila", shot number one done. We had decided that I would go first with Tilley, followed by Elaine, leading by example and hopefully letting the ladies know what they were in for. Everyone stayed in the auditorium the whole day and cheered each one of us on as we had our pose photographed.

The poses we had decided on, all based on a theatrical theme looked absolutely amazing, everyone of our ladies totally entered into the spirit, did what had to be done. Tilley of Red Door studios is an amazing photographer and her lighting was second to none. Whilst most of us were not allowed to look at our shots once Tilley had taken them, I did see some of them on the computer as she took them and I was totally blown away by them, her lighting of each shot made them look stunning. I know the ladies can't wait to see the shots but I know they'll be delighted with them.

There are so many people to thank, Sheelagh for giving up her day to make us all look so beautiful with her make up, that was greatly appreciated, Elaine and Caittom Publishing for providing us with Bucks Fizz and delicious wine, Bethan for her valiant efforts with Pimms and everyone else who bought goodies to make our day special. Thanks also to Matt and Ken for their lifting of heavy objects and for all the running around they did to help us. The biggest thank you and I know this comes from every one of us is for Tilley, who worked so tirelessly throughout the day, she's like the Energiser bunny, just doesn't stop and I know that the finished Calendar will be stunning, her talents are endless and we're very lucky to have her on our team.

Who'd have thought that over a year ago when Elaine and myself were having coffee one day and I said " hmmm wouldn't it be fun to a Calendar?" and Elaine say " now that's an idea" that we have actually done it and to raise, we hope, an awful lot of money for such a worthwhile cause.

There were a few little emotional moments yesterday during the shoot when I think we all realised what an amazing thing we'd just done, such a liberating and bonding thing, we're a very close group of women anyway but for us all to do this was wonderful. My huge thanks to every single one of  you who "bared" all and made yesterday such a truly special day,I am so very proud of all of you.

I'm posting this one picture, a sample of one of our shots, this was taken on Saturday when Tilley was setting up the lighting and I volunteered to stand in for the pose, of course lovely Heather was the one who did the actual pose and of course not fully dressed, but I hope you can get a feel for how wonderful Tilley's lighting was.

Now Tilley's work really begins as she has to edit the pictures and we'll make the final decision which ones goes on the Calendar, of course if you want to see how it turns out then you're going to have to buy a Calendar.