Celia Imrie can make eccentricity feel sociable rather than exhausting. We value her comic timing and her ease among other actors, though The Thursday Murder Club shows how readily a film can mistake that pleasure for a sufficient story.
Fi1m perspective
Celia Imrie’s Joyce narrates into her diary in The Thursday Murder Club (2025), and the film trusts us to like her before anyone else. We warmed to her: the former nurse’s diary gives us a friendly introduction to the group, and Imrie never seems to be pressing for our affection. Alongside Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley, she makes the conversations feel easy. Chris Columbus has good actors enjoying one another’s company, but the murder itself scarcely matters. We would not recommend the film on her presence alone.
That ease has a long history in ensemble comedy. Her repeated work with writer and performer Victoria Wood brought her to prominence from the mid-1980s, with Miss Babs in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV (1985) among the defining parts. Her comic timing works especially well in a group, where she can give a supporting character a recognisable oddness without making the other actors seem surplus to requirements.
From the late 1990s, her film roles became more prominent, and ensembles remained central. Una Alconbury in Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Celia in Calendar Girls (2003) and Madge Hardcastle in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) belong to that stretch. Such casting makes good use of her comic timing, though the recurring demand for an eccentric supporting woman can also narrow what we expect of her. The warmth of Joyce is worth noticing for that reason: she is there to make the group welcoming.
We recommend Absolutely Fabulous (1992), in which she plays Claudia Bing, chiefly for Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. The Diplomat (2023), with Imrie as Meg Roylin, is worth watching for Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell’s prickly exchanges. Neither recommendation depends on Imrie alone, and there is no need to pretend otherwise to value her contribution to ensemble work. Start with Wood for the comedy that established her; Joyce’s murder club requires more tolerance of an indifferent plot.
Biography
Celia Imrie is an English actress. Born on 15 July 1952 in Guildford, Surrey, she trained at the Guildford School of Acting. Her career began in the early 1970s with stage work and television appearances, including roles in series such as Bergerac and collaborations with Victoria Wood.
She is known for film roles including Una Alconbury in the Bridget Jones series (2001, 2004, 2016, 2025), parts in Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and its sequel, A Cure for Wellness (2016) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). Television credits include Dinnerladies, Doctor Who (2005), Patrick Melrose and The Diplomat (2023–). In 2006 she won an Olivier Award for her performance in Acorn Antiques: The Musical!. Imrie was appointed CBE in 2023 for services to drama. She has a son, Angus Imrie, with the late actor Benjamin Whitrow.
