FILMING is due to end this week on the story of 11 Women's Institute members who captured a nation's imagination when they posed naked for a charity calendar.

The members of Rylstone and District WI, in North Yorkshire, have become famous for raising thousands of pounds for charity from the proceeds of the alternative calendar.

Top British actresses including Helen Mirren, Julie Walters and Penelope Wilton are starring in the film, called Calendar Girls.

Walters is playing the part of Angela Baker, whose husband, John, died from leukaemia and in whose memory the calendar was created.

Prime Suspect star Helen Mirren is playing Tricia Stewart, who thought up the idea for a calendar and who has written a book based on her experiences.

The women have raised more than £500,000 for leukaemia research and have sold more than 80,000 calendars.

Speaking from her home in Cracoe, North Yorkshire, Tricia said: "When they were up here filming we were on set most days and they were lovely. We even went down to Shepperton for a few days and it was fantastic to see how they recreated locations, such as our village hall."

Filming took place in the Yorkshire Dales and started in the village of Burnstall, near Bolton Abbey, before moving to Shepperton Studios, in London.

The film is being finished off in Los Angeles and will be completed by Friday. It will be released next year, possibly as early as the spring.