‘There will be no room for shrinking violets when a Furness theatre company takes to the boards later this month’.

So began a report in The Mail in May 2007, adding that a group of Furness players were preparing to bare all and do The Full Monty.

Walney Amateur Operatic Society was getting ready to perform its version of the smash hit at Ulverston’s Coronation Hall.

The setting had been transferred from the city of Sheffield suffering from its post-industrial slump, to Buffalo, New York.

But director David Marcus said the show had lost none of the laughs in the move.

He said: “It’s the same script as the film, except this has been set to music the same version that has been in the West End.

“It’s a very funny piece about ordinary working men of various shapes and sizes who decide to become strippers.

"It has been released to amateurs and done all over the country.

"It has sold out wherever it’s been.

“The cast is 20 strong and includes the six men and their various girlfriends and wives and other people who have been made redundant from a factory.

“We have been rehearsing for about six or seven weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed it because the script is very funny.”

A ten-piece orchestra was due to play live during every performance and the cast had been learning some fancy footwork from a Latin American dance champion.

Jeremy Teo Rondovio, a friend of David's from the Philippines, held classes to make sure the actors could get their kit off in step.

But would the main characters really be showing the audience their assets? David said: "The only time they have disrobed up to now is for the publicity shots but it's going all the way. You couldn't call it The Full Monty without."

In 1988 the society performed My Fair Lady.

And The Mail also regularly reported on productions by another Furness company, the Abbey Musical Society, including Footloose; Finian's Rainbow in 1990 and Blitz! in 1992.