Fern Britton has swapped presenting for posing, as a musical version of Calendar Girls pulls into Woking. Jane McGowan uncovers the facts...
From Ready Steady Cook and This Morning to The Big Allotment Challenge and For What It’s Worth, Fern Britton has been a mainstay of British television for more than 30 years. But now fans of the presenter have a chance to get up close and personal with the 61-year-old mother of four, as she takes to the stage in a musical adaptation of the hit film Calendar Girls.
“I got involved with the show by accident really,” says Fern. “I had a phone call asking if I would be interested. I said: ‘Absolutely not! I wouldn’t cast me in that.’”
Further calls followed, yet Fern remained adamant that she wasn’t the woman for the role. But when an email arrived with an invitation for tea and a chat with Take That supremo Gary Barlow – the creative force behind the project along with Tim Firth – she decided to go along. After all, if Gary thinks you’re right for the part…
“Exactly,” she laughs. “We had a cup of tea and I accidentally agreed to the job. And, I must say, it has been a really positive experience. In fact, it’s been great.”
But then, what many people don’t realise is that the theatre is where Fern began her career.
“I trained as a stage manager at the Central School of Drama – and I am still hanging out with the stage crew. They’re lovely,” she says.
The story behind Calendar Girls is familiar. Like the film, the show is based on the real-life undertakings of a group of Women’s Institute members from Rylstone, North Yorkshire, who came up with a unique fundraising idea after John Baker, the husband of one of their number, lost his life to leukaemia.
The women, all well into middle age, decided to pose nude for a calendar using strategically placed WI-associated items – cakes, flowers and so on – to cover their modesty.
News of their achievements spread rapidly: having set out to raise enough money for a sofa in the hospital waiting area, they ended up selling thousands of copies. To date, the ‘girls’ have raised more than £6m for John’s chosen charity, Bloodwise.
The show, says Fern, is a testament to women’s friendship and solidarity – something replicated through the cast that stars Loose Women favourite Denise Welch and West End regular Anna-Jane Casey.
“We all travel and stay separately, but when we meet up again it’s lovely and we catch up on what we did on our day off. There’s lots of hugging and chatter.”
Born in Ealing in 1957, Fern is the daughter of celebrated actor Tony Britton (The Day of the Jackal, The Nearly Man). Her big break came in 1979 when she landed a job with Westward Television in Plymouth. She went on to front a host of local news and current affairs programmes, as well as cookery gameshow Ready Steady Cook, before securing the job of a presenter on ITV’s This Morning – first alongside John Leslie and then Phillip Schofield.
Fern and Phillip appeared to be the perfect telly couple, jointly helming The British Soap Awards and All Star Mr & Mrs. But then, in 2009, Fern announced that she was quitting the award-winning morning show.
Rumours circulated of a rift with ‘Silver Fox’ Phillip over pay and his status as ITV’s rising star. Yet Fern has vehemently denied that there was ever a falling out. After 30 years of live television, she insists, the time was simply right to step back.
By then her career as a novelist was already taking off and she threw herself into her writing. So far she has produced seven novels, as well as a cookery book and a Sunday Times bestselling autobiography. Her latest tale, The Newcomer, is out this month.
“I actually managed to write it while we were on tour,” she reveals. “I only delivered it at the beginning of January, so I am very pleased to have got it done.”
Fern’s fans may be hoping to see a lot more of her in Calendar Girls, but her character Marie – the chair of the WI – remains fully clothed at all times. Even so, Fern is full of respect for the cast members who do disrobe.
“I have huge admiration for the girls. Those scenes are so beautifully directed and choreographed, yet hilarious. It’s all very tasteful, actually, you think that you’ve seen more than you have. Very cleverly done.
“Our actresses are real women with real women’s bodies, which is very empowering. A lot of people have said afterwards that it’s given them the confidence to take their clothes off in front of their husbands, which is just amazing.”
But while Fern is clearly enjoying every minute of her newfound stage success, she is also looking forward to returning to her husband, TV chef Phil Vickery, and children at the end of the run.
“One of the things I had to think long and hard about was the amount of time I would be away from the family,” she laments. “We have been out for six months already and I do miss them. However, from a selfish point of view, it’s nice waking up in the morning knowing that you don’t have to do any laundry or shopping.”
And for now, she is happy to be entertaining audiences with the show – one which definitely carries a mascara warning.
“Oh yes, bring your tissues,” she urges. “The women the show is based on are outrageous and so courageous – prepared to take a risk and have a laugh. To do what they did 21 years ago was sensational, witty and clever and they are just, well, brilliant. Just reading the script had us all in tears.
“One minute you will be crying with laughter, the next with sadness. We are aware that nearly all the audience will have been touched by cancer. But the show is life-affirming and empowering and very entertaining. Basically, it’s just great.”
What more could you want?
Calendar Girls is at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking from Mar 26-30. For more information and tickets visit: atgtickets.com
