Moan, moan, moan!

GRUMPY Old Women is one of those ideas that is so brilliantly simple, you wonder why no one has thought of it before.

The premise is as follows: three women of a certain age - Jenny Eclair, Dillie Keane and Linda Robson - go on stage and gripe about everything that gets their goat.

Described by them as 'an orgy of middle-aged mayhem, theatrical HRT with not a thong in sight', the show sees them grumble about everything from the curse of catalogues and daylight yobbery to the onset of 'invisible woman' syndrome. It homes in on those subjects that make you want to shake your rolling pin rather than your booty.

This could, of course, be one gigantic and unrelenting moan-fest. But in the hands - and mouths - of three such gifted performers, it makes for an uproariously entertaining evening.

Audiences at Grumpy Old Women Live, which embarks on a 39-date tour this spring, tend to lose their sense of British reserve and wind up whooping and hollering as if they were at an American talk show. The show is a gloriously uplifting experience.

The tour is transferring from TV, where it was a phenomenal success. The last series of BBC2's Grumpy Old Women, featuring such wondrously engaging grouches as Germaine Greer, Sheila Hancock, Janet Street-Porter and Ann Widdecombe, attracted an eye-watering average of 4.8 million viewers per episode.

The theatre critics have been equally enthusiastic. It's the run-up to the tour and I'm taking mid-morning coffee with Jenny, Dillie and Linda in the caf of a central London bookshop.

Sparking off each other like an inspired triple act, they are on coruscating form. The trio (who say their combined age is unprintable!) are exhibiting the keenness of teenagers - they just can't wait to get out on the road and start socking it to us.

Jenny, who has co-written the stage show with Judith Holder, the producer of the Liberty Bell TV series, starts by picturing the ideal audience member at the show: "you're a little bit middle-aged, a little bit grumpy - well quite a lot grumpy, actually, and who can blame you? You're all hot and hairy, and there's stuff you need to get off your saggy old chest. Grumpy Old Women is a celebration of the pre-, peri-and post-menopausal female condition.

The Perrier Award-winning comedian goes on to assert that theatre audiences have been crying out for a show like this, which articulates the manifold frustrations of their everyday lives.

"It's about time we had something like this!" exclaims Jenny.

"This show is the perfect forum for people to air their minor but daily grumps. It's a constant reminder of what a struggle it is to get everything done. It gives audiences the full story - birth, life, death, sex, kids, parents, clothes, the empty nest, the travails of ageing.

"We come from the biggest demographic - the 'me' generation - so we were never going to shut up about being middle-aged. We still want a lot of attention - we refuse to go quietly! Women are very good at communicating - that's why we're putting up our hands and reminding people that we're still here!"

Dillie, who for many years ran the hugely successful cabaret troupe, Fascinating Aida, chips in that fans respond instantly to what the performers are saying.

"It's like a great, big conversation with the audience. It's all the things that are going on in our heads spoken out loud - a tripartite kvetch!

"The audience really want to feel part of this show, and we put them at their ease from the very beginning. Straight away, we tell them what will happen - 'relax, it's not going to go on for too long. You can get drunk on over-priced wine in the interval and still get home in time to put some chops under the grill'. Women don't like to get mucked about."

Another reason the show works so well is that the material immediately strikes a chord with the audience.

"Being middle-aged is a great bonding experience," Dillie continues.

"Everybody knows at once what we're talking about. The audience are all from different backgrounds, but there are so many things that bind us together as women. When you're in the loos with a group of women, it doesn't take long to locate a subject that will make you all laugh. The show is about finding that common ground.

"Men are more gladiatorial, but women laugh from a shared sense of humour. Because of that, the show has a collegiate, 'we're all in this together', feeling. As you're performing it, you see women in the audience nodding in agreement, nudging each other and saying, 'that's you, that is'."

But that does not mean, the trio are quick to point out, that the Grumpy Old Women are in any way anti-men. "We want to involve men," Linda states. "We champion men and pay homage to men and their sheds!"

For all that, Grumpy Old Women Live still tends to attract a predominantly female audience.

"Two male friends of mine came to see the show the other day," Dillie recalls. "In the interval, one said to the other, 'just muscle your way to the bar through that crowd of women', and the other replied, 'you've got to be joking!' It would be a good place to go, if you wanted to pick up a jolly middle-aged woman!"

Linda, who starred for many years in BBC1's hit sitcom, Birds of a Feather, agrees that the show has universal appeal. "My 14-year-old son came to see it and thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever done because he recognised so many things in it about me, my sisters and my mum. The show is a great parade of sisters, aunts, mums and grandmas. It appeals to everyone. It also shows that in the end, we all turn into our mothers!"

There is talk of a West End run at the end of the tour.

Jenny declares that "in the past, women didn't do this sort of show. But we feel it's our duty to do it. In the old days, female performers had to keep quiet about their age. You were 37 for as long as you could get away with it. It's great that now we can say, 'yeah, we're knocking on 50' - I'm not, obviously! - without it mattering or ending our careers. In fact, we can celebrate the fact that we're in the prime of life."

Unable to resist cracking a gag for very long, Jenny adds that "loads of performers would like to be in this show with us, but they're too young and too pretty. This is our revenge. I'm revenge for Sienna Miller!"

Dillie: "I'm revenge for Keira Knightley!"

Linda: "And I'm revenge for Rachel Weisz!"

Grumpy Old Women comes to Southampton Guildhall on Wednesday. Tickets, priced £19, from the box office on 023 8063 2601.