As her portrayal of a foul-mouthed gran in Better Things finally reaches UK screens, Celia Imrie talks about commuting by cruise ship, her funniest ever sketch – and taking up trapeze at 68
Celia Imrie is calling from Nice, where she has spent most of lockdown, finishing her fifth novel. “Isn’t it magic, the way that it works?” she says down the line, in that familiar voice, immediately recognisable to anyone who has caught one of her 170 or so screen performances. “It never ceases to amaze me, because you sound as if you’re next door!” Her enthusiasm is so warm and pervasive, she can even make a humble phonecall sound like a marvel.
Imrie says people in Britain must think she’s been on holiday for the last three years. In fact, she has been starring in the gorgeous US comedy Better Things, whose fourth season is only now airing on the BBC, after a near-criminal delay in bringing it to UK screens. The series, created by and starring Pamela Adlon, is set in Los Angeles, and follows the lives of a jobbing actor in her 40s (Adlon), her three daughters, and Phil, her eccentric British mother living next door, who is straight-talking, foul-mouthed and unbothered by social norms. It has just been renewed for a fifth season, though right now, for obvious reasons, Imrie is not sure when they will be able to get back to business.
