She never intended to stay away from the theatre for so long. It was just the way things worked out with a string of screen successes including Fat Friends, Playing The Field and Coronation Street.

But now she's back on stage, relishing the challenge of Chichester Festival Theatre's big-name stage premiere of the celebrated story of those naked WI ladies.

To watch an interview with Gaynor Faye at the rehearsals Bishop Luffa School click on the green button.

"I always wanted to come back to theatre," Gaynor says. "It just had to be the right project.

"I wanted something that was new, something that people would notice,
and I wanted to be in an ensemble play."

Calendar Girls fitted the bill perfectly – though before embarking on the tale of the Yorkshire WI ladies who so famously stripped off for charity there were a couple of things Gaynor wanted to check.

"David Pugh the producer asked if I wanted to do it. The answer wasn't an instant yes.

"I needed to know how much nudity. And I also wanted to read the script.
When I saw the script I realised that it was fantastic."

And the nudity?

"The director Hamish McColl said to me 'Don't worry, your dignity will be preserved, everything will be covered up as it was originally covered up in the film – by props.'

Inevitably, though, the play will be different to the film in important
respects.

"People will come in knowing what Calendar Girls was about. People will
know the general story. But the film was more focused on the main two ladies. This is much more of an ensemble piece."

And in it, Gaynor is playing Celia, the part played by Celia Imry in the
film.

The pleasure of the play is that the character gets much more of a chance to develop.

"She is a bit of a golf fanatic, but the film never really went into her
character.

"The play explores the other characters as well as the leading characters."

Which again makes it the ideal piece for Gaynor to make her stage comeback – a return to her roots in the business.

"I broke into television from theatre and you just roll with it
from there and I just stayed with television."

However, in a way, her experiences on the ITV reality show Dancing On Ice a couple of years ago helped keep her in touch with the theatre.

After two months on the show, Gaynor, with skating partner, the UK gold medalist Daniel Whiston, was crowned Dancing on Ice champion. They ended up beating Stefan Booth and Bonnie Langford in the grand final.

"It was like getting back to live performance. But at the read-through
(for Calendar Girls) I was still very nervous. People do categorise actors and actresses – they are TV or film or screen actors or whatever. Like everything in life you get put in a bracket.

"But I started in theatre and it is good to come back – albeit a challenge.

"For TV you have to bring everything down and make it naturalistic.

"But for the stage you have to take everything up and make it loud.

"And you get to see the audience's reactions. But I love it. I definitely love it. And you get much more rehearsal time, of course. It is such a luxury to be able to explore your character."

Lynda Bellingham interview click here.

Calendar Girls will be at Chichester Festival Theatre from September 5-27. For more details and tickets contact the ticket office on 01243 781312.

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