Revealed, the REAL story of Celia Imrie’s love child
SHE has always been coy about the circumstances surrounding the birth of her son Angus.
But 23 years on, Celia Imrie has finally admitted that there was more to the story than just a deal between friends.
Having insisted that actor Benjamin Whitrow agreed to father her child as a favour, Miss Imrie has now confessed they were in a romantic relationship.
Whitrow, best known for playing Mr Bennet in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, died in September aged 80.
Miss Imrie, 65, whose latest film Finding Your Feet is released next week, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘His death was very tough. I’d lost a very darling friend and, childishly, I found it terribly difficult to accept someone you’d loved was not in the world any more. I still feel like that.
‘Angus was devoted to his father and, though I’ve never really said it
‘We did have a romance’
properly, Ben and I did have a romance. I wanted to have his baby before it was too late and he … was a wonderful father.’
Miss Imrie had met Whitrow, who was divorced with two adult children, at the BBC in the 1990s and broached the subject of a baby during a walk on the beach. She was in her early 40s and told him she did not expect him to marry her, live with her or contribute towards the baby’s upbringing.
Angus, now an actor, plays Josh Archer in Radio 4 soap The Archers and appeared with his mother in the ITV drama series Kingdom.
Miss Imrie has also revealed how she was hit hard by the death of Victoria Wood from cancer two years ago.
She had been a regular in Miss Wood’s comedy shows, including Acorn Antiques and Dinnerladies.
‘It was a real blow,’ she told the paper. ‘I was in America and had actually no idea she was ill, and I have to say I felt hurt that she wasn’t able to share it with me.’
Miss Imrie, whose films include Cal- endar Girls and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is no stranger to health scares of her own, having suffered two pulmonary embolisms – blood clots in the lung – in 2005. As a result she now flies only if strictly necessary, preferring to travel by boat – she crosses the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2 – and train.
In the feelgood British comedy Finding Your feet, which also stars Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Joanna Lumley, Miss Imrie plays a bohemian who persuades her snobbish middleclass sister to join a dance class.
Although most of the cast are veterans and the film targets an older audience, Miss Imrie dismisses the idea it is a niche movie aimed at the ‘grey pound’. ‘Grey pound is the most ghastly expression … it’s such a fuddyduddy image, it puts people off.
‘What I like about it is we [the characters] are the age we are on screen and that’s never talked about, it’s not seen as a specific issue,’ she said.
Many actresses complain about a lack of roles for older women but Miss Imrie said: ‘I don’t like being the age I am but Calendar Girls, Marigold and Finding Your Feet are all good examples of parts I wouldn’t have got if I were 25.’