 With her composed elegance and the air of the Head Girl from the Upper 6th, Celia Imrie has crossed seamlessly from dramatic roles to the comedic world of Victoria Wood. Born in Guildford on 15 July 1952, her early ambitions to be a ballet dancer were dashed by her excessive height. After briefly working as a dance teacher, she made her stage debut aged 16, as a dancing rat in Dick Whittington. Her television debut came in Upstairs, Downstairs (ITV, 1971-1975) and, following small parts in the films House of Whipcord (d. Pete Walker, 1974) and Death on the Nile (d. John Guillermin, 1978), her first major role was as the love interest, Marianne Bellshade, in the second series of Bergerac (BBC, 1981-91). Her impersonation of Lady Diana Spencer in the comedy special 81 Take 2 (BBC, tx 31/12/81) brought her to the attention of Victoria Wood. A long and fruitful association ensued, in particular as Miss Babs in the soap spoof Acorn Antiques in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (BBC, 1985-87) and as the HR Manager in dinnerladies (BBC, 1998-2000). She won an Olivier award for the 2006 stage musical version of Acorn Antiques. On television she has moved seamlessly from serious roles; teacher Miss Jewsbury in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (BBC, 1990), the murderous aunt in A Dark Adapted Eye (BBC, 1994) and as Lady Gertrude in the fantasy series Gormenghast (BBC, 2000), to lighter comedic roles such as Nicholas Lyndhurst's mother-in-law in the sitcom After You've Gone (BBC, 2007-2008) and as receptionist Gloria Millington in the comedy-drama Kingdom (ITV, 2007-2009). Her film career has blossomed in recent years with diverse roles; the diminutive mother in The Borrowers (d. Peter Hewitt, 1997), mother of the du Pré sisters, Hilary and Jackie (d. Anand Tucker, 1998), as a gravy-obsessed family friend in Bridget Jones's Diary (d. Sharon Maguire, 2001), the formidable Lady Riva Hardwick in Wah-Wah (d. Richard E Grant, 2005), and Matron in St Trinian's (d. Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, 2007). She memorably had what she called a "scary biscuits moment", when she stripped naked behind strategically placed cherry Bakewells in Calendar Girls (d. Nigel Cole, 2003). Graham Rinaldi
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FILM & TV CREDITS
