Celia Imrie hails 'genius' of Celebrity Traitors

Celia Imrie is set to attend a special Christmas event in Uckfield on 29 November

The Celebrity Traitors star Celia Imrie has said she would love to meet the inventor of the "genius" and "totally absorbing" TV game she played alongside eventual winner Alan Carr.

Fresh off her stint in the Scottish Highlands, the acclaimed actress said she and her fellow competitors had no idea how the final would play out "until two days before the rest of the nation".

Imrie, 73, told BBC Radio Sussex that she relished the experience although her son, Angus, was initially sceptical.

"He said, 'Oh mum, you'll be so embarrassing...and of course I was, rather," she remarked, perhaps referring to the now-infamous fart in episode three.

Imrie releasing wind at a tense point in the game amused viewers across the nation

As well as discussing her time on the show, Imrie shared her excitement about coming to Uckfield later this month for a special Christmas event at the Holy Cross Church.

The actress will attend the Countdown to Christmas event being held for the Friends of Sussex Hospices, where her older sister Rosa is a volunteer, on 29 November.

She said: "I have two sisters who are nurses, Juliet and Rosalind, and I really do think they're angels...I know Rosa loves the work that she does, but it's tough."

Imrie will be doing a reading from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and preparing a Christmas cake "where I get to have a tiny bit too much whiskey while I'm making it".

"This is going to be a lovely beginning to the Christmas spirit I hope," she said.

Imrie, who recently went to watch fellow competitor Sir Stephen Fry in the West End production of The Importance of Being Earnest with her Celebrity Traitors family, also reflected on another of her successes, The Thursday Murder Club.

The Netflix film is based on the 2020 novel by Richard Osman and follows a group of retirement village residents who attempt to solve a murder.

Imrie recalled her reaction when producer Stephen Spielberg arrived on set in his helicopter.

"I say these things as if it's an every day occurrence for me...it isn't, I get terribly excited about things like that and I'm forever star-struck," she said.