Jennifer Ellison has claimed that she did not realise she would have to strip off in Calendar Girls. The ex-soap star and former pop singer, 27, said that she thought she was going to have a minor role in the stage production, which did not involve her taking her clothes off.

"I thought I was playing the make-up artist, who doesn't strip," she told the Daily Star. "But when they said there would be three weeks of ­rehearsals I realised something was up. "It turns out I've got a lead role - and I'm as naked as everyone else!"