Celia Imrie on taking the plunge in 'Backstroke'

The Bridget Jones and Calendar Girls star discusses returning to the Donmar Warehouse for Anna Mackmin’s new play Backstroke.

Whether you know her for a pair of well-placed iced buns, travelling around India with a bunch of retirees, or a certain turkey curry buffet, it is unlikely you will have missed the force that is Celia Imrie.

She has been dazzling audiences with her cut-glass accent and cheeky, comedy characters for more than 50 years, collecting nearly 200 screen credits including Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and the four Bridget Jones films (who could forget Una’s infamous tarts and vicars party?). Since her debut as a dancing rat in Dick Whittington aged 16, Imrie has also enjoyed a prolific stage career, working alongside greats including Harold Pinter, Julie Walters, and Glenda Jackson, and picking up an Olivier Award along the way for a musical adaptation of her long-time collaborator Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques. Surely, therefore, the stage no longer holds any fears for her?

Quite the contrary. “I think my heart is going to fall out of my costume and onto the floor,” Imrie says of her upcoming role in Anna Mackmin’s new play Backstroke at the Donmar Warehouse. “It’s terrifying but the joy must outweigh the fright or we’d never do it again. Actors are all barking mad, but it is a thrill beyond a thrill.”

Backstroke will be Imrie’s third time performing at the bijou London venue. She starred in Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus at the Donmar in 1996, alongside her Bridget co-star Jim Broadbent, as well as in the Mark Haddon play Polar Bears in 2010, directed by a “very young” Jamie Lloyd, who Imrie says was “very charming and gentle” (the pair collaborated again in Lloyd’s Pinter at the Pinter season in 2019). Imrie reveals that it’s petrifying to be so close to the audience once again in the cosy Donmar, but in her characteristic, matter-of-fact style, continues, “you just have to get on with it” — although she has forbidden her friends from telling her when they will see the show.

Imrie stars alongside Tamsin Greig in Mackmin’s play about mother and daughter Beth and Bo, who journey through their memories together when Beth (who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease) is admitted to hospital following a stroke. “It's not all about Alzheimer's, though,” Imrie is keen to point out. “I want to make that absolutely clear because, actually, the play is quite joyful. The most marvellous thing is that even though I spend quite a lot of time in my hospital bed, I keep jumping out and becoming 20 or 30 or 60.”

Striking a balance between comedy and drama is clearly key. Imrie agrees: “You couldn't possibly have this whole play all about somebody dying of Alzheimer’s or a stroke. It would be utterly grim.”

The rehearsal process has been an emotional journey, with writer and director Mackmin suggesting to the “ballsy” all-female cast of five that they bring photographs of their mothers into the rehearsal room “so they can have their eye on what we’re up to.” All but one of the company have lost their mothers, and while Imrie and Greig suffered this bereavement some years ago, she says “it's terribly hard not to get very affected by it all. It's nearly impossible.”

Professionally, Imrie last crossed paths with Greig (who she calls “magnificent”) while they were shooting The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in India. Although they didn’t have many scenes together, she says it was wonderful to meet Greig’s husband and children, and having this familiarity “doesn’t half help” when performing in a play as intimate as Backstroke.

The film also allowed Imrie to work alongside Dame Maggie Smith, who passed away in September last year. “It was my absolute delight that I got to do a scene with her,” she says. “It was on YouTube the other day, and I just thought, ‘my God, you lucky girl.’ Honestly, what a genius. I'm forever starstruck.”

Imrie must be one of the most well-connected actors in her industry, having worked with stars including Dev Patel, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, and Dames Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, and Emma Thompson, among many others. So it’s a surprise to hear she still gets starstruck. “I hope I always will be,” she responds.

Her latest excitement was getting to meet acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg on the set of The Thursday Murder Club, the movie adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling novels, which premieres this year and stars Imrie as Joyce: one of a group of retirees who meet to solve murders for fun, but get caught up in a real case. The self-proclaimed true-crime fan says: “Richard used to visit occasionally, and that was always a thrill. But I hope he’ll forgive me saying that my biggest thrill was when Steven Spielberg landed his helicopter and got out on set.”

With Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy currently in cinemas — “even though I’ve only got one line, I think: who cares? I’m thrilled to be part of it” — and The Thursday Murder Club on the horizon, it seems Imrie isn’t short of work on both stage and screen. Has she noticed an improvement in opportunities for older actresses?

“It's luck, because five years ago there were no such parts for women of my age,” she says. “It's a piece of luck that I am the age I am now. I still think I'm 26, but sadly I'm not.”

She continues: “I hated becoming 50, but if I hadn't been, then there would have been no point in being in Calendar Girls, because the whole point was these women were of a certain age and they were very daring to take their clothes off.”

Imrie admits that surviving in the arts can be a challenge: “It’s not all roses in the garden. So if you hit on an upward trajectory, grab hold of it. I would say to any young actor, you've got to want to do it or die. It's tough, but it's also immensely rewarding.”

She’s realistic that some roles are now outside her reach, revealing that she would’ve loved to play Juliet or Hedda Gabler. “There are parts that are just sailing down the river and [I’m] too late,” Imrie says, coming back to her mother, who used to say the two saddest words in the English dictionary are “too late”.

However, with a pair of major films in cinemas this year, a successful second career as an author, a play in the works (“it’s not quite settled yet, but I’m buying the rights and making sure it will go on”), and let’s not forget her show at the Donmar, one thing is clear: Celia Imrie certainly hasn’t been “too late” to stardom.

Check back for Backstroke tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Celia Imrie (Photo by Rachell Smith). Inset: Imrie in Backstroke with Tamsin Greig (Johan Persson) and Bridget Jones, with Colin Firth (Shutterstock).

This article first appeared in the March 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.