Celia wears: red dress by Femponiq (femponiq.com); and bracelets from a selection by The Hirst Collection (thehirstcollection.com)
One of screen’s most recognisable faces, Celia Imrie is an Olivier Award-winning and Screen Actors Guild-nominated actress who was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 Birthday Honours list for services to drama. She has been named a Variety magazine ‘Icon’ and is a Women in Film and Television ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ winner. And as well as her acclaimed film, television, and theatre work, she is also a Sunday Times best-selling author. It is safe to say that I am feeling a little starstruck before our interview; I needn’t have worried, though, because Celia could not be more down to earth.
“I do liken this life to a game of Snakes and Ladders; there are some wonderful ladders, but there are some dangerous snakes,” she laughs, when we talk about her achievements. “I mean, it’s a great life, but you’ve got to want to really love it and be prepared to dare. You know, it’s not stable, there are no promises, and anything can happen from day-to-day,” she explains. Is she currently climbing a ladder, then, or slipping down one of those snakes? “Well, all ladders wobble…” she tells me, enigmatically. “I don’t know! I mean, I would hate to say. I’m clinging on, put it like that!”
From where I am sitting, her position looks a whole lot less precarious than that. She is about to star in the long-awaited Chris Columbus adaptation of Richard Osman’s brilliant The Thursday Murder Club for Netflix; her latest novel has just come out in paperback; this coming autumn will see her appearing in the first season of Celebrity Traitors; and things show no sign of slowing down. The bestselling novel on which The Thursday Murder Club film is based tells the story of four irrepressible retirees in an upmarket later living community who spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but their causal sleuthing takes a thrilling turn when they find themselves with a real whodunit on their hands.
Celia wears, above left: red dress by Femponiq (femponiq.com); and bracelets from a selection by The Hirst Collection (thehirstcollection.com) Right: gold brocade Frankel jacket by Temperley London (temperleylondon.com)
How did the role come about? “I’m not naïve, I’m sure there were lots of possible castings, but I was lucky, just lucky,” Celia tells me. As much as I don’t like being the age I am, because I still think I’m 26, it is lucky that I am the age I am, because that’s what the book’s all about…”
Celia plays Joyce Meadowcroft, a former nurse and keen baker with a shock of white hair who is the newest member of the Thursday Murder Club – the two may be septuagenarians, but they are certainly not peas in a pod, so how did Celia channel her character? “Acting is a rather wonderful invitation to become somebody else, you know,” she explains. “For Joyce it was important that I had an understanding of a nursing career and how life as a nurse would be, and that I know what to do in an emergency and all that sort of thing…Luckily, I have two marvellous, wonderful sisters who are nurses, so I could ask them about the medical things that I needed to be aware of. And also dressing up, getting the right costume; you know, my amazing white hair, which was a wig. You are incredibly helped by those outside props.”
That said, there are some similarities between the two, not least that Celia, too, loves to bake a cake. “I’m not a good cook but I can make cakes,” she reveals. Her signature bake? “Oh, chocolate cake, but it must be made at five in the morning, so as to be absolutely fresh, and the icing preferably with lots of cocoa and espresso in it!”
Then there’s a fascination with crime. “Funnily enough, one of my first night schools I signed up for was the psychology of criminology,” she recalls. “I have become fascinated by criminal documentaries, and watching people lie and thinking they can get away with it, and I know I’m not alone in that. I think that’s why something like The Thursday Murder Club is endlessly interesting. Because people are fascinated by crime, we always will be…”
“I DO LIKEN THIS LIFE TO A GAME OF SNAKES AND LADDERS; THERE ARE SOME WONDERFUL LADDERS, BUT THERE ARE SOME DANGEROUS SNAKES”
Celia wears: Francis denim shirt jacket and denim wide leg trousers by Temperley London from the AW 25 collection (temperleylondon.com)
Solving the case alongside Joyce are ex-spy Elizabeth, played by Helen Mirren, retired psychiatrist Ibrahim, played by Ben Kingsley, and former union activist Ron, played by Pierce Brosnan. “It was fabulous working with them; it was a total joy from beginning to end.” Celia tells me. “I’ve worked with Helen before, in Calendar Girls, and I have worked with Pierce before in The Love Punch, I hadn’t worked with Sir Ben before though… it’s a lovely feeling when you do know each other a little bit. Although in the story, of course, I had to pretend I didn’t know them, because Joyce is very much the new girl in the group. So, I had to be in awe of them – which of course I am in real life!”
There’s undoubtedly a pressure that comes with adapting such a well-loved book for the screen, but Celia admits to not having read the book before being asked to audition for the role, and having to rush out to buy it when she got the part. “It became my Bible really,” she reveals, “because there are marvellous little details that I could infuse into my being; various little clues that I could get from the book that gave me an insight into Joyce.”
Does she think fans will like the film? “Yes, I hope so…” she says, “there isn’t time to get all the twists and turns of the plot in, because of the time limitations of the film. I mean, there will be criticisms, I’m sure. I suppose sometimes you won’t necessarily agree with all of the casting – it occurred to me that the joy of reading a book is that you can cast the characters yourself, as you’re reading along – but we just have to take that on the chin, and hope that we are as loyal as we can be to the story.”
“It was interesting, when I was in America last year, on a book tour, how agog the American audiences were already – the book lovers, you know, who lapped up the book, and are longing for the film,” she continues. “You realise how much the Americans love the Englishness of us, so hopefully it will be a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.” If the film is well received, with whispers of future adaptations of the other books from the series in the pipeline, Joyce and gang could be back together again soon…
Celia wears, above: Bennett belted shirt dress by Rebecca Valance at My Theresa (mytheresa.com) left: Louis shirt and trousers by Temperley London (temperleylondon.com); right: pale pink and white lapel double breasted tuxedo made to order at Knatchbull (knatchbull.com); and bracelets from a selection by The Hirst Collection (thehirstcollection.com)
Regardless, Celia has quite a lot to keep her busy already, including – with six novels and an autobiography to her name – a successful writing career. The latest of those novels, Meet Me at Rainbow Corner, a heart-warming story – inspired by real events – about a group of women working for GI soldiers during the Second World War, has just come out in paperback.
How does she find the time to write? “Well, that’s why I’m so lucky to have a collaborator,” Celia explains. She is referring to Fidelis Morgan, who works with her on her novels. “We met in 1975 when we were both on a world tour with Glenda Jackson, and we were both understudies,” she tells me. “And we’ve been friends ever since. She has a university career, and she’s a published author in her own right. But we work very well together; she does all of the research, mighty research, which is very much a part of all the books now.”
With Celia’s books having a historical slant, that research element is very important. “I love history,” she reveals. “I left school when I was 16 to become a chorus girl, so I lament my lack of education, really. But anything to do with history, and facts, I love. Certainly, Meet Me at Rainbow Corner is full of as many facts we could get hold of, to present the detail of living through war. Because, in the end, none of us really know what living in the war was like. We have got absolutely no idea. And it’s terribly important to be reminded of the hell they went through actually. It’s never too late to learn…”
What can Celia tell us about the book? “Well, it’s all about the American GIs who came over in the war to help us, and fell in love with the English girls, and they with them,” she explains. “They had a special club called Rainbow Corner, which was right in the middle of Piccadilly Circus: they had 24-hour doughnuts, and boxing matches, and dances. They didn’t want to do Waltzes, and Foxtrots and things like that, they wanted to do Jitterbugs.”
“I LEFT SCHOOL WHEN I WAS 16 TO BECOME A CHORUS GIRL, SO I LAMENT MY LACK OF EDUCATION, REALLY. BUT ANYTHING TO DO WITH HISTORY, AND FACTS, I LOVE”
Celia wears: Clove coral velvet jacket, waistcoat, and trousers all by Temperley London (temperleylondon.com); and boots, Celia’s own
The club did exist, and it is just one real-life detail from the book, Celia explains. “It tells the story of two girls. One of our heroines is Dot, from Liverpool, based on Fidelis’ mother, who kept all her wartime letters, so we had lots to dig into to get the details from. For instance, she was engaged four times, and all four died – that’s how life was during the war. So, the book follows Dot, and Lily from Hampshire, who was sort of based on my mother, who drove ambulances in the war and played her violin for the troops. You follow their fortunes as they go over to America after the war on the Queen Mary, and then they have to find their homes in mid-America. Some of the girls came to New York, thinking that they would have GI husbands waiting for them, but they never turned up – you know, it wasn’t all roses. But it’s all based on true stories, which is fascinating, and staggering, and gives you a real, I hope, insight into the joy and the terror of living in war time.”
For Celia, the writing is “a marvellous contrast” to acting, although she admits that it does not come easily to her. “I am very, very lucky, though, because I have a most beautiful apartment in Nice where I do all of my writing,” she tells me. “And all my books so far actually have a connection with Nice, from The Orphans of the Storm, which is about some little Nicoise boys who survived the Titanic – they were two and three, it’s a wonderful story, and a true story, which we’ve turned on its head. And in Meet Me at Rainbow Corner, you learn how brave some 17-year-old boys were when Nice was taken over by the Nazis towards the end of the war, and they fought and freed the city in the most heroic manner; there are plaques all over Nice about these young boys who fought back.”
With so many bestselling novels to her name, I wonder whether Celia has any plans to bring her two worlds together and turn her hand to scriptwriting. “I love doing dialogue in a book, which is my version of the script, I suppose,” she says. “I have also bought the rights of a French play that I want to put on in the theatre, but no, I haven’t yet done a script, but there is always time…”
There is undoubtedly more to come from Celia; when I ask what she considers to be her career highlight, she quickly answers, “I don’t know, I hope it’s still to come…” In terms of where we will see her next, fans of Traitors will be excited to hear that she is set to appear on the first celebrity series later this autumn, filming for which has already wrapped. Was she already a fan, I ask. “Oh yes, of course, who wouldn’t be?” She exclaims, excitedly. “I was asked to take part, and I found it irresistible! I ain’t gonna tell you anything about it though! But you know that… I’m very good at keeping secrets that’s for sure,” she laughs. I, for one, can’t wait to see what she gets up to in the castle…
