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Happy birthday Celia Imrie! This prolific and appealingly playful actress turns 70 today (July 15), so we're celebrating by taking a look back at 10 of her most memorable roles.
1. Acorn Antiques (1985-1987)
Acorn Antiques isn't a TV series as such; it's simply a very popular recurring segment in the 1980s sketch show Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV. Wood conceived it as a spoof soap opera and exaggerated the genre's worst aspects with clumsy dialogue, wobbly sets and horribly far-fetched plots. Imrie plays antique shop owner Miss Babs, whose scenes with tea lady Mrs. Overall (Dame Julie Walters) never seem to run smoothly.

2. Absolutely Fabulous (1995-2001)
Imrie guest stars in two episodes of Jennifer Saunders' cult sitcom as Claudia Bing, a scheming business rival to Saunders' Edina Monsoon. Her character (who works for the ludicrously named PR company Bing, Bing, Bing, and Bing) went down so well with fans that Saunders brought her back for 2016's Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

3. Dinnerladies (1998-2000)
Imrie reunited with Victoria Wood and Dame Julie Walters for this BBC sitcom set in the canteen of a Manchester factory. She plays Philippa Moorcroft, the factory's well-meaning but perpetually flustered HR manager, who's always dashing in and out of the canteen on an errand. When Philippa occasionally loses her temper, it's comic gold. 

4. Calendar Girls (2003)
Based on a true story, this heartwarming British film follows a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women who make a (tasteful) nude calendar to raise money for charity. Imrie plays Celia, a fancy major's wife who provides some of the movie's funniest moments. It's a joy seeing her bounce off co-stars Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Julie Walters, Dame Penelope Wilton and Annette Crosbie.

5. Kingdom (2007-2009)
Imrie joined Stephen Fry in this hit British drama series set in picturesque Norfolk. She plays Gloria Millington, a legal secretary who works for Fry's solicitor Peter Kingdom and is trying to move on after the death of her husband. In a cute bit of casting, Gloria's son Scott is played by the actress' real-life son, Angus Imrie.

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
This charming comedy-drama movie follows a motley crew of British seniors as they embark on a new life in an Indian retirement hotel. Holding her own opposite Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy, Imrie plays flirtatious Madge, a young-at-heart expatriate who doesn't want to stay single for long. She reprised her role in the 2015 sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

7. Doctor Who (2013)
Imrie as a Doctor Who baddie? It happened, and we love it. She appears in the action-packed episode "The Bells of Saint John" as Miss Kizlet, an apparently ruthless woman who helps The Great Intelligence to upload humans to a datacloud using the world's WiFi. (Slight Spoiler) At the end of the episode, we find out that Miss Kizlet isn't quite as confident as she seems.

8. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Imrie has a memorable cameo at the start of the second Mamma Mia! movie as the vice-chancellor of the university where Donna (Lily James) is graduating from. She joins James for a joyful rendition of the Abba banger "When I Kissed the Teacher," which gives you a pretty big clue as to what happens in Imrie's scene.

9. Keeping Faith (2020)
Imrie appears in the third and final season of Acorn TV's Welsh thriller series. She plays Rose, the estranged mother of Eve Myles' high-flying solicitor Faith, who may have left it too late to make amends with her daughter. It's a less sympathetic role than we're used to from Imrie, but one that she really sinks her teeth into.

10. Better Things (2016-2022)
Imrie has mainly appeared in U.K. productions, but in recent years she's had a fun stateside role in Pamela Adlon's spiky comedy-drama series Better Things. She plays Phil, the potty-mouthed and filter-free British mother of Adlon's L.A. actress Sam Fox. Interestingly, Imrie isn't a fan of flying, so she travels from London to L.A. first by ship, and then by train.

Have we missed out one of your favorite Celia Imrie roles?