WE know the nudie WI calendar story so very well, there is none of the element of surprise of The Full Monty, and the publicity feels like it has dragged on for more than a calendar year.

Nothing, however, can stop Calendar Girls, and those good North Yorkshire ladies who dared to bare, from being the British film event of the year.

That is not the same as being the best British film of the year (a prize about as worthy as a world championship boxing belt these days), but it is probably the best British film of, say, 1973.

For Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls is a retro film, set in 1999 but very much belonging to an earlier age of warm and cosy, sad and heartening cinema from gritty little England. Oh, and it is just ever so slightly patronising to Yorkshire and Yorkshire folk.

To the story: bored with jam and Jerusalem and plans for the 12 most beautiful churches in Wharfedale to form the latest charity calendar, Women's Institute rebel Chris (Helen Mirren) suggests honouring the memory of her friend Annie's late husband, cancer victim John (John Alderton), by doing a cheeky, alternative calendar. That way Annie (Julie Walters) can raise money to buy a sofa for the local hospital.

There follows the staples of an old-fashioned British comedy drama: clashes with uptight WI martinets; middle-aged reticence to strip; male discomfort; regular echoes of personal tragedy; plenty of social satire and lots of jokes at our own expense. So far, so feelgood, but then Calendar Girls has to stretch out and it stumbles, first in charting the inevitable friction that follows the women's spectacular, unexpected rise to fame; then in the vanity trip to Hollywood; stretch limo, Jay Leno interview and all. By now, it is like watching someone else's holiday video.

The women of a certain age start to flag as Cole's film enters that uncertain stage and never recovers its pathos or patter, despite the bristling wit of scriptwriter Tim Firth. Mirren and Walters play against type to good effect - they could easily have been cast in the reverse part - but the supporting roles are as flimsy as an old bra and the men are caricatures. Calendar Girls is just not as fresh as the original idea.

Updated: 08:45 Friday, September 12, 2003