Celia Imrie- Actor of the Week

Celia Imrie

What a joy to have Celia Imrie as my Actor of the Week. She has been in so many of my favourite films that I had a hard time deciding which ones to feature.

Celia Imrie Fighter Pilot Bravo 5 Star Wars Phantom Menace

If you didn't know that Celia played the first female fighter pilot in Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace, don't feel bad. I had no idea either! Apparently George Lucas made her remove her lipstick. No lippy for fighter pilots?

Celia Imrie as Una Alconbury in Bridget Jones's Diary

Of course I will always think of Celia as Una Alconbury in Bridget Jones's Diary. She was perfect as Auntie Una, the meddling best friend of Bridget's mum.

Una Alconbury: You career girls. Can't put it off forever. Tick-tock, tick-tock

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Una Alconbury:  Come and look at your gravy, Pam. I think it's going to need sieving.
Pam Jones:  Of course it doesn't need sieving. Just stir it, Una.

Celia Imrie in Calendar Girls- bigger buns!

In Calendar Girls, we will always remember Celia as "Bigger Buns" which is apparently what some fans shout out when they meet her in the street. Actually, as I was starting this post I told my husband I was featuring Celia Imrie he said he'd never heard of her. All I had to say was "Bigger Buns", and he replied "Oh, her!"

Celia Imrie as Mrs. Meyrick in Daniel Deronda

As the lovely Mrs. Meyrick in Daniel Deronda, we get to see Celia as a Victorian matron. Small part but very well done I think. I am reading Daniel Deronda now and I have her voice in my head as I am reading.

Celia Imrie as Mrs. Quickly in Nanny McPhee

Celia must have had a lot of fun playing the way over the top character of Mrs. Quickly in Nanny McPhee, chasing Colin Firth all over the highly coloured set. The food fight looked like a good time too!

Celia Imrie as Lady Glenmire in Cranford

In Cranford, Celia plays Lady Glenmire, not quite the grand lady that the Cranford crowd was expecting and she gives them quite a lot to talk about when she marries one of the few men in that village! Naughty, naughty!

Celia Imrie at the premiere of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I just can't wait to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This has been out in the UK for months, but we don't get it in North America until May 4th. I know I am going to end up buying this DVD! It looks like such fun from the trailers.

Celia Imrie as Grace Rushton in Titanic

I will be watching Titanic the TV miniseries again this weekend as I quite enjoyed it (despite what some critics and viewers are saying). Celia's character of Grace Rushton is a "new money" first class passenger who is snubbed by the aristocrats she is trying to impress. She is very concerned about her Pekinese Suki especially when the ship starts sinking.

So did I manage to cover all of your fave Celia Imrie films? Or would you like to add one or two to the list? I would have added the character of Mrs. Miller in The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling but I couldn't find a photo of her. She starred in Tom Jones with the father of her teenaged son Angus (Benjamin Whitrow aka Mr. Bennet from P&P 1995). And it is a gem if you have never seen it! Any others I missed?

Titanic 2012 miniseries by Julian Fellowes

Titanic 2012 by Julian Fellowes

As a Canadian, we are used to getting period drama well after the UK and usually at the same time as the USA. Oddly enough, we are watching this on Global TV this month at the same time that ITV is airing it in the UK (actually we get each episode a few days earlier!). The four episodes air later this month on ABC over two nights- April 14 and 15, to coincide with the actual anniversary of the sinking.

So I am in the rare position of being able to give you my opinion of this before most of you will be able to see it. Overall so far, I kind of like it!

Noah Reid and Perdita Weeks as Harry Widener and Georgiana Grex

These two (Perdita Weeks and Noah Reid) are my favourite characters. Think of them as the Rose and Jack of this Titanic, although Noah plays rich American upstart Harry Widener and Perdita Weeks plays English aristocrat and rebellious suffragette Georgiana Grex. Well, they are just adorable! We have seen Perdita Weeks as Lydia Bennet in Lost in Austen and Mary Boleyn in The Tudors. She also resembles her sister Honeysuckle Weeks, whom I adored as Sam in Foyle's War. We will also see Perdita Weeks as Clara in the conclusion of Great Expectations this coming Sunday.

If I could name one fault of this miniseries, it is the vast number of characters and stories to keep up with. It hardly gives one time to get to know the characters and hence care about their stories. But I love these two. Now I have to keep watching to see if they make it!

Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones as John and Muriel Batley

It is interesting that we are made aware of 2nd class in this series (in the guise of John and Muriel Batley). Previously we have been shown 1st and 3rd class (steerage) but there were a lot of 2nd class passengers also. If you are interested, there is a Titanic website which lists all of the survivors of the voyage as well as whether they were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class or whether they were crew members. If you click on the person's name it will give you any extra available info on their story. I found it very interesting. Am I being overly nosy at this point or do we all have a bit of morbid curiosity?

Earl and Countess of Manton, with their rebellious daughter Georgiana

And what would a Julian Fellowes miniseries be without an Earl and a Countess? This time the Countess is not American but Anglo-Irish and she is not nearly as likeable as Cora in Downton Abbey. As an aside, the British press have dubbed the series "Drownton Abbey" or "Upstairs, Drownstairs". Groan!!!

Titanic panic

I have not yet decided whether or not I like the way the story is told, with the focus on a different group of characters each week culminating in the panic as the ship is sinking at the end of each episode. It is not exactly relaxing viewing! I have two more episodes to go, and so I shall see how I feel at the end. There is no doubt that it is gorgeously filmed however.

So I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have so far. The reviews were really mixed, so I didn't expect much and was really pleasantly surprised. I look forward to hearing what all my readers think when they see  this one.

P.S. I do like Celia Imrie's social climbing character of Grace Rushton. I hope she and her little doggie make it!

N.B. I just finished watching the entire series, and I can absolutely recommend watching it. It gives a real sense of what really went on that night from many different perspectives and I really got attached to some of the characters. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if they made it off. There is so much packed into these 4 hours that I will likely watch it again at least once. Yes, it is heartbreaking at the end of the last hour, but as we all know how it ends this isn't surprising. So go ahead and watch it. You know you want to!