A WITTY, caustic and nostalgic tale of one woman’s quest to become her heroine Hattie Jacques is coming to Bordon.

Becoming Hattie, at the Phoenix Theatre and Arts Centre, on March 12, celebrates the unique talents of the much-loved comedy icon of stage and screen.

This affectionate one-woman show by Proteus Theatre Company combines this with a funny and edgy commentary on the obstacles and lazy stereotypes larger women face.

It’s 1974 and eight-year-old Jo is snuggled up on the settee idly glancing at the TV when, there on the screen, is a woman unlike anyone she has seen on the screen before, the woman she knows she will emulate.

Forty years later, and Jo has followed Hattie’s footsteps.

She too is an actress, but why does she only get cast as the nurse and not the surgeon? Why is she too fat to play Lady Macbeth?

Could it be than nothing has changed since Hattie did the Carry On films?

Proteus artistic director Mary Swan said her vision for the piece was to use Hattie’s life as a mechanism for exploring contemporary attitudes towards women’s bodies.