Six male celebrities to do 'The Full Monty' for ITV cancer telethon

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Britain's ITV says it has gotten "six famous men" to agree to strip "completely nude" for a television special intended to raise awareness of men's cancers.

The hour-long The Real Full Monty special will see presenters Alexander Armstrong and Ashley Banjo "round up" the celebrities, who will train for weeks as strip-teasers and ultimately take it all off in front of a live audience of 2,000 people at the London Palladium.

The cast and air date have not yet been revealed.

"We are using this film to raise awareness of men's cancer prostate and testicular, encouraging guys to check themselves and look out for their friends and act on symptoms if they have them," Armstrong said in a statement Wednesday. "If caught early enough, prostate cancer is nearly 100 percent curable, but if men are not aware of the problem or ignore symptoms, as story is not such a good one, as prostate cancer kills one man an hour. I hope that by showing these men have the balls to strip off in front of thousands of people, it might encourage otherwise reluctant men to overcome their embarrassment and get themselves checked."

  "We're going to have a ball making this show," added Banjo. "I'll make sure viewers are in for a treat by knocking a group of famous novices into shape and preparing them for the strip-tease performance of their lives -- viewers will see our celebs as they've never seen them before!"

  "The Fully Monty is a special and iconic film and we're delighted to be able to recreate its warmth, heart and soul for this program -- it is going to be enormous amounts of fun. We're delighted to have Ashley on hand to whip them into shape with Alexander managing the bunch of unlikely lads. This promises to be a no-holds barred, hugely entertaining show," producer Kevin Mundye remarked.

Starring Mark Addy, Tom Wilkinson and Robert Carlyle, The Fully Monty started out 20 years ago as an Oscar-nominated comedy film. Later adapted as a wildly successful stage musical, the story followed a group of out of work miners who become unlikely strip dancers to pay the bills.