Celia Imrie

Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952 ) is an English actress.

Imrie is best known for film roles including the Bridget Jones series (2001, 2004, 2016, 2025), Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), St Trinian's (2007), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), A Cure for Wellness (2016), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and The Thursday Murder Club (2025).

Imrie appeared in the FX series Better Things (2016–2022), the Netflix series The Diplomat (2023–present) and the first series of The Celebrity Traitors (2025) on BBC One. She is also known for her frequent collaborations with the comedian and actress Victoria Wood. In 2006, she won an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in Acorn Antiques: The Musical!.

Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Early life and education Celia Diana Savile Imrie was born on 15 July 1952 in Guildford, Surrey, the fourth of five children of Dr. David Andrew Imrie, a radiologist from Glasgow, Scotland, and Diana Elizabeth Imrie, Cator. Her mother was a granddaughter of Sir John Ralph Blois, 8th Baronet, from an old Suffolk family. Imrie was educated at Guildford High School, an independent school for girls in her home town of Guildford, followed by the Guildford School of Acting.

Career Film Imrie's film credits include the mischievous Mrs. Selma Quickly in Nanny McPhee, Iris du Pré in Hilary and Jackie, Homily Clock in the 1997 film The Borrowers, House of Whipcord, Bridget Jones's Diary, Calendar Girls, Highlander and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Imrie played Fighter Pilot Bravo 5 in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Matron in St Trinian's (2007), Claudia Bing in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), Victoria Watkins in A Cure for Wellness (2016), Bif in Finding Your Feet (2017), Vice-Chancellor in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mimi in Love Sarah (2020), Imelda in Good Grief (2024) and Joyce in The Thursday Murder Club (2025). She also played Vera in A Dark-Adapted Eye (1994) by Ruth Rendell.

Imrie first worked with Victoria Wood in the 1980s on Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, which included the popular sketch Acorn Antiques. In 1994, she reunited with Wood in the television film Pat and Margaret, and later appeared in Dinnerladies from 1998 to 1999. and Blue Black Permanent (1992).

In 2000, Imrie played Lady Gertrude in Gormenghast, and with Judi Dench in Cranford. In 2013, she guest-starred in the BBC's Doctor Who, playing the villainous Miss Kizlet in "The Bells of Saint John". In May 2016, she made her US television debut in the DC action-adventure series Legends of Tomorrow. In September 2016 she began starring as Phyllis in the FX series Better Things. Her nervous fart, while locked in a wooden cabin with the other celebrities in episode 3, was described as the "TV moment of the year". Imrie competed the game as a faithful before eventually being "murdered" in plain sight by traitor Alan Carr in episode 8.

Theatre After appearing as a chorus girl in many pantomimes, in 1975 Imrie got a job as an Assistant Stage Manager and understudy in the Royal Shakespeare Company with Glenda Jackson playing Hedda Gabler, directed by Trevor Nunn, on a world tour. Also in the company at that time were Patrick Stewart, Timothy West, Peter Eyre, Pam St Clement, Jennie Linden and Fidelis Morgan.

In 1979, Imrie played in her first revue, Performing Ceals with Celia Foxe, which first opened at The Bonne Crepe and played at various venues in London ending up in 1980 at The Comic Strip. Other plays include Seduced at the Royal Court Theatre, and Heaven and Hell at the Traverse Theatre. Imrie appeared with the company in the 1979, 1981 and 1983 seasons at the celebrated Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. In 1984 she played in Alfie with Adam Faith at the Liverpool Playhouse in a production directed by Alan Parker. In 1991 she appeared in The Sea with Dame Judi Dench at the National Theatre in London. In 2005, after a successful run at the King's Head Theatre, her one woman play Unsuspecting Susan written by Stewart Permutt transferred to 59E59 Theaters in New York. In 2009 she appeared in Plague Over England in the West End, while in the same year she appeared in the world premiere of Robin Soans's Mixed Up North, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. In 2010, she appeared alongside Robin Soans in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals.

In 2005, Imrie won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in Acorn Antiques: The Musical! playing Miss Babs. In 1995 she played in The Hothouse at the Chichester Festival Theatre with Harold Pinter, with the production after transferring to the West End. In 1990 she appeared in Hangover Square at the Lyric Hammersmith with Dudley Sutton, in Drama at Inish (2011) at the Finborough Theatre with Paul O'Grady, and in her cabaret Laughing Matters – all adapted and directed by Fidelis Morgan.

In 2010, Imrie played in Hay Fever, and during the 2011–2012 season she appeared in Noises Off at The Old Vic and the West End, for which performance she was nominated for an Olivier Award. In 2016 Imrie re-united with Glenda Jackson after 41 years since their RSC world tour, playing a "grimly determined Goneril" in King Lear at The Old Vic.

Imrie narrated during the ceremonial event held to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day at Portsmouth in 2019.

Radio Imrie's radio work includes parts in BBC Radio 4's No Commitments and Bleak Expectations. In early 2007, she narrated the book Arabella, broadcast over two weeks as the Book at Bedtime. She was the guest on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 13 February 2011.

Imrie appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in October 2019. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "A half-burnt candle".

For Big Finish Productions, Imrie has played numerous roles including Dr Kessika Miles in the Doctor Who epic Hooklight in 2025, opposite Peter Davison. Before that, she had voiced Madame Tissot in 2016 Doctor Who story Gallery of Ghouls opposite Tom Baker. In the same year, she played Livia in the Gallifrey spin-off series story Enemy Lines. Earlier, in 2013, in another Doctor Who spin-off series entitled Counter Measures, a spin-off of the 1988 television episode Remembrance of the Daleks, she played Dr Elizabeth Bradley in the episode The Fifth Axis.

Imrie's non-Doctor Who Big Finish roles include being co-lead in the Big Finish Original murder mystery series Shilling and Sixpence. She played Clementina Quentinbloom in their production of Jeremiah Bourne in Time. She was also one of the actors to play Number Two in the Big Finish adaptation of The Prisoner.

Books Imrie's debut novel Not Quite Nice was published by Bloomsbury in 2015, had six weeks in the Sunday Times Top Ten, was cited by The Times as a 'delicious piece of entertainment', and also reached number 5 in the Apple ibook chart and 8 in Amazon's book chart. Her second novel, Nice Work (If You Can Get It), was published in 2016; and her third, Sail Away, was published in February 2018. Her next work, A Nice Cup of Tea, was published in 2019. Her fifth novel, Orphans of the Storm, was published in 2021.

The Happy Hoofer (2011), Hodder & Stoughton, Not Quite Nice (2015), Bloomsbury Publishing, Nice Work (If You Can Get It) (2016), Bloomsbury Publishing, Sail Away (2018), Bloomsbury Publishing, A Nice Cup of Tea (2019), Bloomsbury Publishing. Orphans of the Storm (2021), Bloomsbury Publishing. Meet Me At Rainbow Corner (2024), Bloomsbury Publishing.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again As part of the cast of the 2018 film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Imrie achieved her first UK Top 40 single alongside Lily James with a cover of the ABBA song "When I Kissed the Teacher", which reached number 40 in August 2018.

Personal life Imrie lives in London and in Nice, France. She has a son, Angus Imrie, born in 1994, with the actor Benjamin Whitrow. Angus appears as her on-screen son in Kingdom (2007–2009) and has acted in other productions, having studied drama and performance at the University of Warwick.

When she was 14, Imrie was admitted to the Royal Waterloo Hospital suffering from anorexia nervosa. Under the care of controversial psychiatrist William Sargant, she was given electroshock and large doses of the anti-psychotic drug Largactil.

In July 2005, Imrie suffered a pulmonary embolism and was hospitalised for two weeks.

Imrie was featured in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in October 2012 and discovered that an ancestor on her mother's side was William, Lord Russell, a Whig parliamentarian executed for treason in 1683, after being found guilty of conspiring against Charles II. Imrie's great-great uncle, William Imrie, was a founder of the White Star Line. Imrie is a ten-times-great granddaughter of the infamous Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset.

In 2013, Imrie was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester.

Filmography Film

Year Title Role Notes 1973 Assassin Stacy's Secretary 1974 House of Whipcord Barbara 1978 Death on the Nile Maid Uncredited 1983 The Wicked Lady Servant at Inn 1986 Highlander Kate 1992 Blue Black Permanent Barbara Thorburn 1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mrs. Moritz 1995 In the Bleak Midwinter Fadge 1997 The Borrowers Homily Clock 1998 Hilary and Jackie Iris Du Pré Hiccup JudyShort 1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace Fighter Pilot Bravo 5 2001 Bridget Jones's Diary Una Alconbury Lucky Break Amy Chamberlain Revelation Harriet Martel 2002 Thunderpants Miss Rapier Heartlands Sonja 2003 Calendar Girls Celia Out of Bounds Imogen Reed 2004 Wimbledon Lydice Kenwood Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Una Alconbury 2005 Wah-Wah Lady Riva Hardwick Imagine Me & You Tessa Nanny McPhee Mrs Quickly 2007 St Trinian's Matron 2009 St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold Matron 2010 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Enid Wicklow The Man Who Married Himself Mother Short 2011 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Madge Hardcastle My Angel The Librarian 2012 Acts of Godfrey Helen McGann 2013 The Love Punch Pen 2014 What We Did on Our Holiday Agnes Chisolm Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? Clara Keen 2015 The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Madge Hardcastle Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism Edna the Cook 2016 Year by the Sea Erikson Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Claudia Bing Bridget Jones's Baby Una Alconbury A Cure for Wellness Victoria Watkins 2017 Monster Family Cheyenne Voice role Finding Your Feet Bif 2018 Malevolent Mrs Green Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Vice Chancellor Nativity Rocks! This Ain’t No Silent Night Mrs. Keen 2020 Love Sarah Mimi 2022 Fifty-Four Days Gloria Short 2023 Mummies Mother June Carnaby Voice role Love Again Gina Valentine Good Grief Imelda 2025 Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Una Alconbury The Thursday Murder Club Joyce Meadowcroft TBA TBA Post-production

Television Year Title Role

"If You Were the Only Girl in the World", "Missing Believed Killed"

Polly "A Touch of Class"

"Vive Le Sport"

TV film

"Root of Evil"

"Alan B'Stard Closes Down the BBC", "May the Best Man Win"

TV film

"We'd Quite Like to Apologise"

"Val De Ree (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)"

"Staying In"

TV film

"The Italian Venus"

"When the Green Woods Laugh (Parts 1 & 2)"

"The Food of Love"

"Still Waters"

"Red Card"

TV film

TV film

TV film

"Jealous", "Menopause"

"Learning Curve"

TV film

TV film

TV film

TV film

"River Rage"

TV Short

Voice role

TV film

"Above the Law"

"Inventions Now"

TV film

"Dark Autumn"

Professor McKern "Revenge of the Bog People"

"The Shoot"

TV film

TV film

TV film

"Wummin'"

"Gorgons Wood"

"Going Bodmin"

"4.50 From Paddington"

TV film

"Taken at the Flood"

TV film

"Walk of Faith"

Main role; 25 episodes

18 episodes

"Christmas Special"

TV film

1 episode

TV film

4 episodes

Michelle Marber "The Soul of Genius"

"The Bells of Saint John"

6 episodes

1 episode

1 episode

1 episode

1 episode

2 episodes

4 episodes

Awards and honours

1992: The Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Sea 2006: Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in Acorn Antiques:The Musical! 2017: UK WFTV (Women in Film and Television) Award for the EON Productions Lifetime Achievement

Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.