GRUMPY Old Women Live, a celebration of the female condition, comes to the Albert Halls in Bolton next week.

Be it the curse of catalogues, daylight yobbery, or the onset of "invisible woman" syndrome, basically anything that makes you want to shake your rolling pin rather than your booty, then an invitation has gone out for Tuesday to Bolton audiences to join a cast of three soulmates for the live grump fest.

Grumpy Old Women Live has been co-written by comedian, writer and performer Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder, writer and producer of the TV series of the same name. Regular Grumpy Old Women contributors Jenny Eclair, Dillie Keane and Linda Robson will play host to a night of middle-aged mayhem.

Jenny Eclair was the first woman to win the Perrier award for stand-up comedy, while Dillie Keane was a founder of theatre group Fascinating Aida, which has performed in the West End and on Broadway. Linda Robson will be familiar to many from the BBC series Birds of a Feather.

Taking a break from rehearsals, Jenny Eclair said that she was actually in quite a good mood.

She said: "The show is a time of life thing, really. We have a rant, a moan, a laugh and a cry about the world we're living in. It's as much a celebration of this time of life as anything else." Grumpy Old Women was originally aired on BBC2 and featured a diverse, colourful and grumpy group of celebrities including Germaine Greer, Sheila Hancock, Janet Street-Porter and Ann Widdecombe, attracting more than 4.8 million viewers per episode.

The live show is script edited by Richard Herring, BAFTA winning writer of On The Hour, script editor for the forthcoming series of the multi award-winning Little Britain, and co-writer and star of BBC2's Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy.

"We wanted to take the experience into a live context, where we can hopefully make the connection with the audience. We talk about kids, sex, and everything that gets on our nerves. But we also have fun and we want the audience to join in. We spend some time dancing round our handbags after rummaging through them and we discuss the pros and cons of HRT.

"The show isn't one-dimensional, though. It's not just us up on stage moaning, although we do plenty of that. There are things that you think about when you start to reach middle age to be very sad - missed opportunities, mistakes you've made and mistakes you wish you'd made, and we can have a bit of a cry as well," Jenny said.

It is as much a personal journey for Jenny as well. She wrote The Book of Bad Behaviour 1994, which was a guide to being a slobby ladette before the term had even been invented. How would she view such a woman now?

"With a great deal of fondness, I think. At the time, it was about breaking out. There were still a lot of things that women wanted to do that were frowned upon, and it made me incredibly angry. There are a couple of things that I physically can't manage now, but I'd still give most of it a try. "

Jenny is under no illusion that any live enterprise is a gamble, and says: "I'm sure that the show will be a success, but you don't want to count your chickens. It will certainly be a lot of fun."

Tickets are available from the box office on 01204 334400