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Celia Imrie

Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952  ) is a British actress and author. She is best known for her film roles, including the Bridget Jones film series, Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), the FX TV series Better Things (2016–2022) and the Netflix series The Diplomat (2023).

Early life and education
Imrie was born on 15 July 1952 in Guildford, Surrey, the fourth of five children of Diana Elizabeth Blois (née Cator) and Dr. David Andrew Imrie, a radiologist. Her father was from Glasgow, Scotland. Imrie was educated at Guildford High School, an independent school for girls in her home town of Guildford, followed by the Guildford School of Acting.

Film
Imrie's film credits include the mischievous Mrs. Selma Quickly in Nanny McPhee, Iris du Pré in Hilary and Jackie, Homily Clock in the 1997 film The Borrowers, House of Whipcord, Bridget Jones's Diary, Calendar Girls, Highlander and  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Imrie played Fighter Pilot Bravo 5 in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Matron in St Trinian's (2007), Claudia Bing in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), Victoria Watkins in A Cure for Wellness (2016), Bif in Finding Your Feet (2017), Vice-Chancellor in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mimi in Love Sarah (2020), and Imelda in Good Grief (2024).

Television
Imrie's television credits include Upstairs, Downstairs, Bergerac,The Nightmare Man, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Casualty, Absolutely Fabulous, and The Darling Buds of May. Her favourite part was Vera in A Dark-Adapted Eye (1994) by Ruth Rendell.

From 1985 to 1989 she worked in the team with Victoria Wood in As Seen on TV, Acorn Antiques and dinnerladies, and in 1994 she appeared again with Wood in Pat and Margaret.

With pride in her Scottish heritage she has played in Still Game, Cloud Howe, Taggart, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Blue Black Permanent (1992).

In 2000 she played Lady Gertrude in Gormenghast, while in 2001 she was in  Love in a Cold Climate with Sir Alan Bates. In 2002 she played Mrs Violet Pearman to Albert Finney's Churchill in The Gathering Storm. She appeared in the BBC television drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle (2005), appeared opposite Nicholas Lyndhurst in the BBC sitcom After You've Gone (2007–2008), and opposite Stephen Fry in the ITV1 drama Kingdom and with Dame Judi Dench in Cranford. In 2013, she guest-starred in the BBC's Doctor Who, playing the villainous Miss Kizlet in "The Bells of Saint John". In May 2016, she made her US television debut in the DC action-adventure series Legends of Tomorrow. In September 2016 she began starring as Phyllis in the FX series Better Things.

Theatre
After appearing as a chorus girl in many a pantomime, in 1975 Imrie got a job as an Assistant Stage Manager and understudy in the Royal Shakespeare Company with Glenda Jackson playing Hedda Gabler, directed by Trevor Nunn, on a world tour. Also in the company at that time were Patrick Stewart, Timothy West, Peter Eyre, Pam St Clement, Jennie Linden and Fidelis Morgan.

In 1979 Imrie played in her first revue, Performing Ceals with Celia Foxe, which first opened at The Bonne Crepe and played at various venues in London ending up in 1980 at The Comic Strip. Other plays include Seduced at the Royal Court Theatre, and Heaven and Hell at the Traverse Theatre. Imrie appeared with the company in the 1979, 1981 and 1983 seasons at the celebrated Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. In 1984 she played in Alfie with Adam Faith at the Liverpool Playhouse in a production directed by Alan Parker. In 1991 she appeared in The Sea with Dame Judi Dench at the National Theatre in London. In 2005, after a successful run at the King's Head Theatre, her one woman play Unsuspecting Susan written by Stewart Permutt transferred to 59E59 Theaters in New York. In 2009 she appeared in Plague Over England in the West End, while in the same year she appeared in the world premiere of Robin Soans' Mixed Up North, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. In 2010, she appeared alongside Robin Soans in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals.

In 2005 Imrie won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in Acorn Antiques: The Musical! playing Miss Babs. In 1995 she played in The Hothouse at the Chichester Festival Theatre with Harold Pinter, with the production after transferring to the West End. In 1990 she appeared in Hangover Square at the Lyric Hammersmith with Dudley Sutton, in Drama at Inish (2011) at the Finborough Theatre with Paul O'Grady, and in her cabaret Laughing Matters – all adapted and directed by Fidelis Morgan.

In 2010 Imrie played in Hay Fever, and during the 2011–2012 season she appeared in Noises Off at The Old Vic and the West End, for which performance she was nominated for an Olivier Award. In 2016 Imrie re-united with Glenda Jackson after 41 years since their RSC world tour, playing a "grimly determined Goneril" in King Lear at The Old Vic.

Imrie narrated during the ceremonial event held to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day at Portsmouth in 2019.

Radio
Imrie's radio work includes parts in BBC Radio 4's No Commitments and Bleak Expectations. In early 2007, she narrated the book Arabella, broadcast over two weeks as the Book at Bedtime. She was the guest on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 13 February 2011.

She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in October 2019. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "A half-burnt candle".

Books
Her debut novel Not Quite Nice was published by Bloomsbury in 2015, had six weeks in the Sunday Times Top Ten, was cited by The Times as a 'delicious piece of entertainment', and also reached number 5 in the Apple ibook chart and 8 in Amazon's book chart. Her second novel, Nice Work (If You Can Get It), was published in 2016; and her third, Sail Away, was published in February 2018. Her next work, A Nice Cup of Tea, was published in 2019. Her fifth novel, Orphans of the Storm, was published in 2021.

 * The Happy Hoofer (2011), Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-1444709278
 * Not Quite Nice (2015), Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1632860323
 * Nice Work (If You Can Get It) (2016), Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1408876909
 * Sail Away (2018), Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1408883235
 * A Nice Cup of Tea (2019), Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1408883266
 * Orphans of the Storm (2021), Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1526614896
 * Meet Me At Rainbow Corner (2024), Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1526616357

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
As part of the cast of the 2018 film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Imrie achieved her first UK Top 40 single alongside Lily James with a cover of the ABBA song "When I Kissed the Teacher", which reached number 40 in August 2018.

Personal life
Imrie lives in London and in Nice, France. She had a son, Angus Imrie, in 1994 with the actor Benjamin Whitrow. Angus appears as her on-screen son in Kingdom (2007–09) and has acted in other productions, having studied drama and performance at the University of Warwick.

When she was 14, she was admitted to the Royal Waterloo Hospital suffering from anorexia nervosa. Under the care of controversial psychiatrist William Sargant, she was given electroshock and large doses of the anti-psychotic drug Largactil.

In July 2005 she suffered a pulmonary embolism and was hospitalised for two weeks.

Imrie was featured in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in October 2012 and discovered that an ancestor on her mother's side was William, Lord Russell, a Whig parliamentarian executed for treason in 1683, after being found guilty of conspiring against Charles II. Imrie's great-great uncle, William Imrie, was a founder of the White Star Line. Imrie is the ten-times-great granddaughter of the infamous Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset.

In 2013, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester.

Honours and awards
Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

 * (1992) The Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Sea
 * (2006) Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in Acorn Antiques:The Musical!
 * (2017) UK WFTV (Women in Film and Television) Award for the EON Productions Lifetime Achievement

Theatre
Source:

 * 1976: Now Here's a Funny Thing
 * 1976: Sherlock Holmes
 * 1976: The Adventures of Alice
 * 1977: Henry V
 * 1977: Love's Labour's Lost
 * 1977: The Boyfriend
 * 1978: As You Like It
 * 1978: Cabaret
 * 1978: Macbeth
 * 1978: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
 * 1979: The Good Humoured Ladies
 * 1979: Pygmalion
 * 1980: Seduced
 * 1981: Heaven and Hell
 * 1981: A Waste of Time
 * 1982: Puntila and Matti, Master and Servant
 * 1982: Puss in Boots
 * 1982: Philosophy of the Boudoir
 * 1982: The Screens
 * 1983: Arms and the Man
 * 1983: Custom of the Country
 * 1983: The Merchant of Venice
 * 1983: Sirocco
 * 1983: Webster
 * 1984: Alfie
 * 1984: The Merchant of Venice
 * 1984: When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout
 * 1985: Particular Friendships
 * 1985: The Philanthropist
 * 1986: Last Waltz
 * 1987: School For Wives
 * 1987: Yerma
 * 1988: Doctor Angelus
 * 1988: The Madwoman of Chaillot
 * 1990: In Pursuit of the English
 * 1990: Hangover Square
 * 1990: No One Sees the Video
 * 1991: The Sea
 * 1995: The Hothouse
 * 1996: Habeas Corpus
 * 1997: Dona Rosita the Spinster
 * 1998: The School for Scandal
 * 2003: The Way of the World
 * 2003: Unsuspecting Susan
 * 2005: Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
 * 2005: Unsuspecting Susan
 * 2009: Plague Over England
 * 2009: Mixed Up North
 * 2010: The Rivals
 * 2010: Polar Bears
 * 2010: Hay Fever
 * 2011: Drama at Inish
 * 2011–2012: Noises Off
 * 2016: King Lear
 * 2018–2019: Party Time and Celebration

title: Celia Imrie


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Teradomari, Niigata

Teradomari (寺泊町) was a town located in Santō District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 11,766 and a density of 202.30 persons per km2. The total area was 58.16 km2.

On January 1, 2006, Teradomari, along with the city of Tochio, the town of Yoita, and the village of Washima (all from Santō District), was merged into the expanded city of Nagaoka.

Railway
JR East - Echigo Line
 * Teradomari - Kirihara

In addition to this line, Echigo Kotsu Nagaoka Line(ja:越後交通長岡線) had been operated in the town until 1975.

Ports

 * Teradomari Port
 * Sado Kisen Terminal

Local attractions

 * Teradomari Fish Market Street
 * Teradomari Aquarium(ja:寺泊水族博物館)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Teradomari, Niigata


text:
Talk:Prayag

Comment from 2004
This article is about Allahabad under an earlier name. The content should therefore be incorporated into the Allahabad article, and this name changed to  a redirect. Imc 12:06, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Prayag


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Paolo Matthiae

Paolo Matthiae (born 1940) is an Italian archaeologist.

He is a professor of History of Art of the Ancient Near East in the University of Rome La Sapienza; he has been Director of the Ebla Expedition since 1963—in fact, its discoverer—and has published many articles and books about Ebla and about the History of Art of Mesopotamia and Syria in general. In 1972 and 1973, Matthiae co-directed the excavation of Tell Fray in the Euphrates Valley that was to be flooded by Lake Assad, the reservoir of the Tabqa Dam which was being constructed at that time. He is a member of institutions as the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome), the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut, and is doctor Honoris Causa of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Books

 * Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered
 * Ebla: La città rivelata, collection «Universale Electa/Gallimard●Storia e civiltà» (nº 56), Electa/Gallimard, 1995
 * Aux origines de la Syrie : Ebla retrouvée, collection « Découvertes Gallimard / Archéologie » (nº 276), Éditions Gallimard, 1996

National honours

 * Syria:
 * SYR Order Merit 1kl rib.png Order of Civil Merit (Excellent class) (2023)

title: Paolo Matthiae


text:
Santō District, Niigata

Niigata Santo-gun.png:

]]
 * yellow - areas formerly within the district borders during the early Meiji period
 * green - current borders

Santō (三島郡) is a district located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of July 1, 2019, the district has an estimated population of 4,190 with a density of 94.4 persons per km2. The total area is 44.38 km2.

Municipalities
The district consists of only one town:

 * Izumozaki

History

 * Before the Edo Period, Santō District was part of the now-defunct Koshi District.

Recent mergers

 * On April 1, 2005 - The towns of Koshiji and Mishima were merged into the expanded city of Nagaoka.
 * On January 1, 2006 - The towns of Teradomari and Yoita, and the village of Washima were also merged into the expanded city of Nagaoka.

title: Santō District, Niigata


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Yamakoshi, Niigata

Yamakoshi (山古志村) was a village located in Koshi District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 2,035 and a density of 51.09 persons per km2. The total area was 39.83 km2.

On April 1, 2005, Yamakoshi, along with the town of Oguni (from Kariwa District), the town of Nakanoshima (from Minamikanbara District), and the towns of Koshiji and Mishima (both from Santō District), was merged into the expanded city of Nagaoka.

On October 23, 2004, Yamakoshi was hit by the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake.

Local attractions

 * Bullfighting(ja:牛の角突き)
 * Rice Terraces

title: Yamakoshi, Niigata


text:
Norman Baillie-Stewart

Norman Baillie-Stewart (15 January 1909 – 7 June 1966) was a British army officer who was arrested in 1933 for espionage, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned.

He was an active sympathiser of Nazi Germany, and moved there after his release from prison in 1937; he became a naturalised German citizen in 1940. Before and during World War 2 he made English-language propaganda radio broadcasts and became one of several broadcasters associated with the nickname Lord Haw-Haw. After Germany's defeat, he was again imprisoned. He was released in 1949 and spent the remainder of his life in Ireland. He died in 1966.

In 1933, he became widely known as The Officer in the Tower as he was imprisoned in the Tower of London after his first arrest, becoming the last British subject to be held in the Tower as a proper prisoner.

Early life
Baillie-Stewart's father was Lieutenant Colonel Cron Hope Baillie Wright (1875-1937) an officer in the British Indian Army who served in the 62nd Punjabis during the First World War. His mother was from a family with a long tradition of military service. His older brother, Eric Codrington Stewart Wright (1905-1987) also joined the army, and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) in 1925.

Baillie-Stewart attended Bedford School and the Britannia Royal Naval College, before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, under a cadet scholarship. There, he served as an orderly to Prince Henry, a younger son of King George V.

In January 1929, just before he graduated, he changed his surname from Wright to Baillie-Stewart, perhaps under the belief that he was looked down upon by more senior officers. He graduated tenth in the order of merit and in February 1929 received a commission as a subaltern in the Seaforth Highlanders although he soon grew to dislike army life.

In 1929, Baillie-Stewart was posted to the Seaforth's Second Battalion in India. In 1930, he saw active service on the North West Frontier, where he was reprimanded by his company commander for removing a native banner from an Afridi tribal graveyard, which aggravated tensions with local tribesmen. He later replaced the banner on the orders of a senior officer.

A campaign medal was authorised for that campaign, but Baillie-Stewart did not receive it. He returned to England in early 1931 after he had applied for transfer to the Royal Army Service Corps.

Espionage career
In August 1932, the British Security service, MI5, became aware that a man in Berlin, who claimed to be a British army officer, had attempted to gain an interview at the German War Office. The British embassy in Berlin tentatively identified the man as Norman Baillie-Stuart. An investigation was begun, in the hands of Major William Hinchley-Cooke of MI5.

Hinchley-Cook searched Baillie-Stuart's quarters and began intercepting his mail; this revealed his communications with a German contact. During the autumn of 1932, Baillie-Stuart made three weekend trips to the Netherlands, briefly meeting a German contact in Rotterdam each time, although MI5 was initially unaware of this as they confined their investigation to intercepting his mail. In November 1932, MI5 opened a letter to him containing £50 in £5 banknotes. Baillie-Stuart replied with a letter to "Herr Obst" in Berlin. A second letter to Baillie-Stuart in December contained £40 in £10 notes.

In January 1933, it was decided to confront Baillie-Stuart with the gathered evidence, and offer him the chance to quietly resign from the army in exchange for information about his contact in Germany. He refused to do this and so was charged with offences against the Official Secrets Act. He wrote a further letter to "Herr Obst" in Germany, describing he predicament, which he gave to his Adjutant to post. However the adjutant instead gave it to Major Hinchley-Cooke.

On 20 March 1933, Baillie-Stuart was taken to the Tower of London, the authorities believed this was the least-open military establishment in London, and holding him there would help keep the matter out of the public eye. He was the last British subject to be held in the Tower as a proper prisoner, rather than as one awaiting transfer. However this attempt at concealment backfired. The story of Baillie-Stuart's arrest was revealed in the press by the well-known romance novelist Barbara Cartland (then working as a gossip columnist) who got the details from an acquaintance. The story of an officer from a prestigious regiment, facing the unprecedented charges of espionage and held in the famous Tower of London quickly became a press sensation.

Baillie-Stewart's court-martial was held at Chelsea Barracks and began on 20 March. There were ten charges under the Official Secrets Act for selling military secrets to a foreign power. Baillie-West pleaded not-guilty to all charges. Because Britain was not at war, he was not in danger of execution, but the ten charges against him carried a maximum sentence of 140 years in jail.

The court was told that Baillie-Stewart began to offend in 1931 when he met and fell in love with a German woman while he was holidaying in Germany. He decided to become a German citizen and wrote a letter to the German Consul in London to offer his services. Receiving no answer, he travelled to Berlin without permission to take leave, where he telephoned the German Foreign Ministry and demanded to talk to an English-speaker. That resulted in him making contact with a Major Mueller under the Brandenburg Gate, where he agreed to spy for Germany.

Using the pretext of studying for Staff College examinations, he borrowed from the Aldershot Military Library specifications and photographs of an experimental tank, the Vickers A1E1 Independent, as well as a new automatic rifle and notes on the organisation of tank and armoured car units.

Baillie-Stewart was convicted of seven of the ten charge against him and was sentenced to cashiering and five-years in prison. Soon after, while held in Wormwood Scrubs, he was interviewed again by an MI5 officer and revealed that the Herr Obst he had addressed his letters to had been the cover-name of Major Muller ("Muller" was also likely a cover-name). Marie-Luise had been merely a figment of his controller's imagination. Baillie-Stewart's code-name was Poiret (little pear). That and Marie-Luise (a variety of pear) were names used to conceal the correspondence with Muller. Muller's cover name, Obst, was the German word for "fruit"

Baillie-Stuart was released from Maidstone Prison on 20 January 1937.

German collaboration
In August 1937, eight months after his release from prison, Baillie-Stewart moved to Vienna, where he applied for Austrian citizenship, however, it was refused since he did not meet the residency qualification. In February 1938, the Austrian government, led by Kurt Schuschnigg, suspected him of being a Nazi agent and gave him three weeks to leave Austria. Officials at the British embassy in Vienna refused to help him once they learned who he was and Baillie-Stewart's disenchantment with Britain was increased. Rather than return to Britain he went to Bratislava, which was then in Czechoslovakia.

Following the Anschluss, Baillie-Stewart was able to return to Austria, where he made a modest living by operating a trading company. He applied for naturalisation, but the application was delayed by bureaucracy at the ministry, and he did not become a German citizen until 1940. In July 1939, Baillie-Stewart attended a friend's party in which he happened to hear some German English-language propaganda broadcasts. He criticised the broadcasts and was overheard by a guest at the party who happened to work at the Austrian radio station. He informed his superiors of Baillie-Stewart's comments, and after a successful voice test in Berlin, Baillie-Stewart was ordered by the German Propaganda Ministry to report to the Reich Broadcasting Corporation (Reichsrundfunk) in Berlin, where he became a propaganda broadcaster in August 1939, taking over as chief broadcaster from Wolf Mittler. Baillie-Stewart made his first broadcast reading pro-Nazi news on the Germany Calling English-language service a week before the United Kingdom declared war on Germany.

It has been speculated that it was Baillie-Stewart who made the broadcast that led the pseudonymous Daily Express radio critic Jonah Barrington to coin the term "Haw-Haw". The nickname possibly referenced Baillie-Stewart's exaggeratedly aristocratic way of speaking, but Wolf Mittler is usually considered a more likely candidate. When William Joyce later became the most prominent Nazi propaganda broadcaster, Barrington appended the title and named Joyce "Lord Haw-Haw" since the true identity of the broadcaster was then unknown. Another nickname possibly applied to Baillie-Stewart was "Sinister Sam".

By the end of September 1939, it had been clear to the radio authorities that Joyce, originally Baillie-Stewart's backup man, was more effective. Baillie-Stewart, who had gradually become disenchanted with the material that he had to broadcast, was dismissed in December 1939, shortly after his last radio broadcast. He continued to work in Berlin as a translator for the German Foreign Ministry and lectured in English at Berlin University. In early 1940, he acquired German citizenship.

In early 1942, Baillie-Stewart made a brief return to radio under the alias of "Lancer". He made several broadcasts for both the Reichsrundfunk and Radio Luxembourg. He spent much time avoiding the more blatant propaganda material he was asked to present. He translated to English the words of "Lili Marleen", which were sung by Lale Andersen as a form of propaganda towards Allied soldiers but then taken up strongly by the Allies themselves.

In 1944, Baillie-Stewart had himself sent to Vienna for medical treatment, where he was arrested in 1945 in Altaussee, while he was wearing "chamois leather shorts, embroidered braces and a forester's jacket", and was sent to Britain to face charges of high treason.

Postwar
Baillie-Stewart avoided execution only because the Attorney-General, Hartley Shawcross, did not think he could successfully try him on charges of high treason since he had German citizenship and instead decided to try him on the lesser charge of "committing an act likely to assist the enemy". The Security Service (MI5) reportedly lobbied for him to be sent to the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, where there would be no "namby-pamby legal hair-splitting".

In January 1946, Baillie-Stewart was charged under the 1939 Defence Regulations with aiding the enemy; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released from HM Prison Parkhurst in May 1949. He moved to Ireland, where he lived under the pseudonyms of James Scott and Patrick Stuart.

In Ireland, he married and settled in the Dublin suburb of Raheny. He had two children before he died of a heart attack after collapsing at a pub in Harmonstown in June 1966. At the time of his death, he had just completed his autobiography, which he had co-written with John Murdock. This was posthumously published in 1967.

title: Norman Baillie-Stewart