IT’S very rare for a story to move you to both tears of sadness and joy.

But this, if it’s not a contradiction in terms, is the ultimate feelgood tear-jerker.

Calendar Girls is an extraordinary story of courage, and it took that in buckets for six brilliant actresses to disrobe in front of an expectant Mayflower audience last night.

Lynda Bellingham is quite superb as Chris, the story’s bossy matriarch, the driving force behind the alternative WI calendar in memory of her best friend Annie’s (a well cast Jan Harvey) late husband John.

It is difficult to single out performers in such an incredible ensemble piece, but Michelle Collins showed her theatre pedigree as single mum Cora and Ruth Madoc’s Marie was a wonderfully snobby leader of the WI who would have even outsmarted Gladys Pugh, the Hi-De-Hi! character she so famously portrayed.

But my personal favourite was Debbie Chazen who put on a spectacularly comic turn as wronged, overweight housewife Ruth, who braves the Miss January pose – and a lot else besides.

Daily Echo: Calendar Girls; Last night's review

The film and show have always been firm favourites of mine, but Calendar Girls has been re-directed since its last appearance at The Mayflower, and is all the better for it.

There are a number of clever new additions to the staging which breathed new life into an already wonderful piece.

The play is laugh-out-loud hysterical but it never forgets the meaning behind its sense of humour.

Donation tins at the doors of theatres around the country have so far raised more than £2m for leukaemia charities.

I think John Baker would be utterly stunned at the phenomenon he inspired.

I too was stunned by the sheer gusto of the tear-inducing script for this simply superb piece of theatre.

Calendar Girls runs until Saturday. Box office: 023 8071 1811.