Why the Calendar Girls showed class where TV only  shows naked titillation, says Christa Ackroyd

That I kept bumping into them at bars and restaurants during the rest of my holiday was mortifying. Thank goodness I had kept my bikini bottoms on. Anyway I digress. I wear nothing in bed. Not that you needed to know that. But I am trying to make the point that the sight of a naked body doesn’t send me into a complete meltdown. Nor does it send me dizzy with desire.

What is does do is reaffirm my belief that there is a time and a place for everything. And that time is not on prime time TV all in the name of so called education. What on earth is the current obsession with naked bodies on our screens? How is it ‘empowering’ as the TV producers suggest ?

Yes it is empowering when fashion models on the catwalk reflect all shapes and sizes. Yes it is important that we see real people on TV and in the magazines. But naked game shows? I have another word for them.. it’s an old fashioned word, but it suits here. Titillation.

Every time I flick through the channels there seems to be naked this or naked that for our delectation. Naked Attraction. Dr Down Below. Naked Education and now Naked Run around the countryside pretending it’s a race or whatever it is called. And call me a cynic but it is just the latest craze and one I could do without. So what of the TV executive claims that it is to “normalise all body types, champion our differences and break down stereotypes?” Yawn yawn. Really ? And how does taking all your clothes off do that. You can keep them on and still do exactly the same. These programmes are nothing more than peep shows, the latest fad by TV executives who dress them up as important. I could go further. Naked Attraction, probably the forerunner whereby a potential partner is picked having seen their ‘choices´ stand naked in little boxes has nothing to do with body image no matter what shapes and sizes are on display. It is selling body attraction over attraction of the mind and body and in my humble opinion does little more than re emphasise all we were supposed to be teaching our young people is wrong, that you are how you look. No it is voyeurism made for TV and dressed up as education. As for showing a group of 14 to 16 year olds four people naked as part of a TV show no matter how you dress it up it is shockingly naive to suggest it will do anything other than embarrass some and cause a fit of the giggles in others. That’s apart from the fact that most people look better with their clothes on.

With one exception. Twenty four years ago this month a group of women from a quiet Yorkshire Dales village took the world by storm. And they changed perceptions not only of body image but of how people see the ‘older woman’ by giving us permission to be who we are bumps, lumps and all.

The Calendar Girls became a phenomenon. Yet when I took the call from Terry the photographer their only aim was to sell a couple of hundred calendars to raise money for comfy seating in a cancer ward. To this day they are still surprised at the reaction they engendered then and now. That calendar changed the image of the Women’s Institute from jam and Jerusalem to what it is today, a place where women of all ages can come together and celebrate what it is to be a woman. That they spurned hundreds and hundreds of naked calendars from firemen to riding instructors was not what they intended. They were and always will be the originals. That calendar led to a Disney film with international stars including Dame Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. It begat a stage play and then a Gary Barlow musical. And it raised six million pounds for Blood Cancer UK. They were women of every shape and size. Some were body conscious others were not. But what they produced was not a naked display of egotism. It was discreet, fun (who can forget the line ‘We are going to have to get bigger buns’) beautifully shot and yes empowering. And it struck a chord with every woman of a certain age the world over. And indeed with everyone else. That dear readers is how to get naked and still be at your most attractive. That is how to show the world that underneath our clothes we are all pretty much the same. That some will be happy with their bodies others will not, but it is what is in our hearts that we should be judged by. And for them it’s sole purpose was to support a friend who needed cheering up and in doing so raise money for one of their own whose husband was dying of blood cancer and others like him.

They remain wonderfully close to this day. Some would do it again like a shot. Others would not. But more importantly they showed the world that taking your clothes off should never be gratuitous, never just for shock value, though shock some they did, including themselves at the reaction to them. That I was there at the start of their journey is one of my proudest moments. That I still keep in contact with them shows how they inspired me then and still do. But you can’t put the Calendar Girls in boxes, ask them to do a twirl and judge them on their assets. They are so much more than that. As every person is. Next year will be 25 years since they sat around discussing what once had seemed like a crazy idea. They were not out to change the world. But god bless them change the world they did, without fuss, without exploitation, without prancing around completely naked. They were and are beautiful women inside and out. They are funny, engaging, life affirming and life changing. And in doing what they did they educated millions of us across the world that being body beautiful is not the be all and end all. Being confident in who you are is everything, whatever your age. No gimmicks. No ulterior motives. Just being strong, brave and prepared to do absolutely anything to help a friend in need. And that is the top and bottom of it, that life is for living whatever you look like, whatever hang ups you have and for taking the plunge to do something for others. Not for self gratification. And ain’t that the naked truth?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​