Naked mature ladies.

Now that I have your attention, read on.

Seaside residents may not believe this, but before those plucky women of the Sunset Empire Parks and Recreation District posed nearly naked for a fund-raising calendar, someone else had the idea. They made a lot of money for charity, too.

Now a movie has been made uncovering their exploits, and it’s a hoot.

Helen Mirren, Julie Walters and Annette Crosbie lead the cast in “Calendar Girls,” a tastefully made film with funny and sad elements that entertains, drags for mere moments, then leaves audiences with a warm glow.

It’s based on the true story of women in northern England who start out trying to raise enough money for a better couch in a hospital visitors’ room in memory of the husband of Walters’ character, who dies of cancer. Instead, after worldwide press attention and public acclaim for their tastefully nude calendar, they raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for leukemia research.

Before the calendar project, the Rylstone and District Women’s Institute is a cure for insomnia. To explain, Women’s Institutes are clubs for ladies where crafts, jam-making and decorum go hand-in-white glove. Their signature tune is “Jerusalem,” William Blake’s rousing hymn which implies rural England is God’s promised paradise. (I have to be careful here, because my Mum is a stalwart with the Mole Valley W.I.)

Walters, an actress whose star continues to rise since her astonishing Oscar-nominated breakthrough in “Educating Rita,” plays a shy woman whose husband (John Alderton) is dying of cancer. Alderton, a versatile actor who cut his teeth on gormless sitcoms 25 years ago, brings a quiet dignity to the Yorkshire sunflower-grower who believes the late bloom is the prettiest.

In America, Mirren – more properly “Dame Helen” – is most familiar to PBS audiences as the iron policewoman Jane Tennyson in the “Prime Suspect” series. She chews up serial killers, has a warped personal life and little sense of humor. Here she sheds that steely persona to create a likable but flawed character whose devil-may-care attitude drives the calendar’s success but tests her kinship with Walters. Mirren dominates throughout, perhaps a little too much, but demonstrates a charming comic touch.

In the supporting cast, Crosbie, also a PBS favorite as the prim housekeeper in “Dr. Finlay,” is delightful. One scene over breakfast, in which her upper-crust husband discovers her naughty photo reprinted in England’s most staid newspaper, is worth the price of admission.

Other critics have compared the film with “The Full Monty,” or suggested it carries on too far beyond its high point. I disagree; for me, the extended ending wraps things up nicely. And “Monty” has a desperate, somewhat sordid edge; there is none of that here.

It’s PG-13 (for a couple of British swear words, rather than any nudity). Mums and dads should bring their kids with no worries about actually seeing naked ladies cavorting on screen. In fact, young moviegoers will be squirming with laughter, especially during a couple of scenes where Mirren’s teenage son discovers her with her bra off.

“Calendar Girls”

Rated PG-13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material

Starring: Helen Mirren, Julie Walter, John Alderton, Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Philip Glenister, Ciaran Hinds

Directed by: Nigel Cole

Length: One hour 48 minutes

Short take: Helen Mirren and Julie Walters star in a movie about a dozen mature British women who shed their inhibitions to pose for a fund-raising calendar as a memorial for Walters’ character’s dead husband and a fund-raiser for cancer research. Based on a true story (which inspired the Seaside “Sunset Ladies”).

Rating: Three stars out of four