Celia Diana Savile Imrie CBE (born 15 July 1952[1][2][3]) is a British actress and author. She is best known for her film roles, including the Bridget Jones film series, Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), the FX TV series Better Things (2016–2022) and the Netflix series The Diplomat (2023).
Imrie was born on 15 July 1952 in Guildford, Surrey,[4][5] the fourth of five children of Dr. David Andrew Imrie, a radiologist from Glasgow, Scotland,[6][7] and Diana Elizabeth, née Cator. Her mother was a granddaughter of Sir John Ralph Blois, 8th Baronet, from an ancient Suffolk family.[8] 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.[9]
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,[10] 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), and Imelda in Good Grief (2024).[11]
Imrie's television credits include Upstairs, Downstairs, Bergerac,The Nightmare Man, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Casualty, Absolutely Fabulous, and The Darling Buds of May.[11] Her favourite part was Vera in A Dark-Adapted Eye (1994) by Ruth Rendell.
From 1985 to 1989 she worked in the team with Victoria Wood in As Seen on TV, Acorn Antiques and Dinnerladies, and in 1994 she appeared again with Wood in Pat and Margaret.[11]
With pride in her Scottish heritage she has played in Still Game, Cloud Howe, Taggart,[12] Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Blue Black Permanent (1992).[13]
In 2000 she played Lady Gertrude in Gormenghast,[11] while in 2001 she was in Love in a Cold Climate with Sir Alan Bates. In 2002 she played Mrs Violet Pearman to Albert Finney's Churchill in The Gathering Storm. She appeared in the BBC television drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle (2005), appeared opposite Nicholas Lyndhurst in the BBC sitcom After You've Gone (2007–2008),[11] and opposite Stephen Fry in the ITV1 drama Kingdom[14] and with Dame 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.[10]
After appearing as a chorus girl in many a pantomime, 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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18][19] In 2009 she appeared in Plague Over England in the West End,[20] while in the same year she appeared in the world premiere of Robin Soans' Mixed Up North, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.[21] 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.[11][22][23] In 1995 she played in The Hothouse at the Chichester Festival Theatre with Harold Pinter,[24] with the production after transferring to the West End. In 1990 she appeared in Hangover Square at the Lyric Hammersmith with Dudley Sutton,[25] in Drama at Inish (2011) at the Finborough Theatre with Paul O'Grady,[26] and in her cabaret Laughing Matters[27] – all adapted and directed by Fidelis Morgan.
In 2010 Imrie played in Hay Fever,[28] 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.[29] 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.[30]
Imrie narrated during the ceremonial event held to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day at Portsmouth in 2019.[31]
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.[32]
She 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".[33]
Her 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.[34] Her second novel, Nice Work (If You Can Get It), was published in 2016;[35] and her third, Sail Away, was published in February 2018.[36] Her next work, A Nice Cup of Tea, was published in 2019.[37] Her fifth novel, Orphans of the Storm, was published in 2021.
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.[38]
Imrie lives in London and in Nice, France.[39] She has a son, Angus Imrie, born in 1994; with the actor Benjamin Whitrow.[40] Angus appears as her on-screen son in Kingdom (2007–09) and has acted in other productions, having studied drama and performance at the University of Warwick.[41]
When she was 14, she 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.[42]
In July 2005 she suffered a pulmonary embolism and was hospitalised for two weeks.[10][43]
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.[44] Imrie's great-great uncle, William Imrie, was a founder of the White Star Line. Imrie is the ten-times-great granddaughter of the infamous Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset.[45]
In 2013, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester.[46]
Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.[47]
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