By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * *)
And now the British version of the feelgood movie. Also based on a true story, this is the airbrushed version of the good ladies of the Rylstone and District Women's Institute in Yorkshire who, in April 1999, produced a cheeky nude calendar to raise
money for charity.
The movie is based around two best friends: Julie Walters as Annie, good humour and common sense, and Helen Mirren as Chris, their most glamorous and dangerous member.
When Annie's husband John (played by John Alderton), dies of leukemia, she needs to fill the space left in her life. She and her friends decide to shoot a nude calendar to raise funds for the threatened hospital which cared for John in his last days.
Yes, it's the Royal Academy first hockey XI again: Geraldine James, Penelope Wilton, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie and co. The ladies will remove their clothes for the photo-shoot and then have to put them back on again to face their families and the village. And then Hollywood and The Jay Leno Show, and the group falling out over money and celebrity.
A lightweight delight with some great characters and better one-liners.
The DVD's best moments are when viewers meet the real-life characters. The Naked Truth features them as a bunch of batty and bemused Brits, reminiscing about the photo-shoot, where they were confronted with difficulties such as the buns being too small to hide their nipples. There are four deleted scenes (yes, a chorus of Jerusalem was planned) and a making of ...
feature in which the cast reveal they had problems in taking their clothes off for the camera, too.
DVD, video rental April 7
