It took six naked women to remind me of one of the things I've enjoyed most in my life. West Meon Theatre's production of Calendar Girls was not only an uplifting evening of excellent drama, it demonstrated why the word 'amateur' should be banned from the theatre world. Having seen only professional shows in recent years, I had forgotten how much pleasure I used to get in the past from watching so-called 'amateur' theatre.

To call someone 'amateur' is fine in the original meaning of 'done for love' but sadly it has become a pejorative term in the same way that 'professional' is now synonymous with 'good'. West Meon Theatre are an 'amateur' group in the sense that they don't get paid but they easily held their own in Winchester Theatre Royal's excellent season of 'professional' productions. I've seen four theatrical shows in the last four weeks, the other three being in the West End, and I am sure that any of the West Meon women could have performed on those London stages.

The London productions did benefit from the presence of a few outstanding actors. Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear in Othello who were able to inhabit Shakespeare's characters and language like they were two real people coping with and adapting to events as they unfolded there and then. Hatti Morahan gives an emotional tour-de-force as Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House. It would be hard for anyone to get laughs a big as David Walliams camping it up as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Professional productions have other advantages over the amateurs, like the luxury of rehearsal time, a production budget for impressive sets and effects and a huge pool of experienced actors from which to choose. But my basic point remains, the division between amateurs and professionals is artificial. West Meon Theatre, with Tim Firth's well written script and an excellent director in Mary Dawson, were able to engage us with believable characters telling a great story. On the other hand, we can all remember occasions when professional actors have rattled off their lines without meaning.

When I lived in Northampton many years ago, I reviewed theatre for the local paper and saw many more amateur than professional productions. I was introduced to some plays and musicals I was previously unaware of and had some wonderful evenings. Although I've seen and enjoyed Guys And Dolls many times since, I've never laughed quite as much at Brush Up Your Shakespeare as the first time I saw it live, performed by amateurs.

So why do we make this distinction? We don't regard people who volunteer to work in a charity shop as 'amateur' shop assistants. I'm not seen as an 'amateur' company director because I don't get paid to be on the board of Blue Apple Theatre. Of course some amateur theatre groups do it purely for the fun and the sense of community, not unlike the ladies of the WI who originally bared all for their calendar, but the best, like West Meon, take their job seriously and succeed in moving us in the way live performance should.

It's time we got over the division because, with arts funding cuts going the way they are, we may be relying increasingly on 'amateurs' to give us live theatre and the opportunity to see new and classic plays. This 'amateur' critic has certainly resolved to see more of them.