Celia Bannerman

Celia Bannerman was born at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and trained at the London Drama Centre. She started her professional career with Ralph Richardson as Dolly in Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell and Lucy in Sheridan's The Rivals followed by Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. At the Royal Shakespeare Company she played Lady Anne in Richard III, Katherine in Perkin Warbeck, Mrs Galy Gay in Man Is Man, and much later, Phebe in As You Like It (2023). She played a number of major television roles early on in her acting career, notably Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1967), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Diana Newbury in Upstairs, Downstairs. She starred in the films The Tamarind Seed (1974), Biddy (1983) for which she received an award from the Moscow Film Festival, Little Dorrit (1987) and The Land Girls (1998). Bannerman was Associate Director at the Bristol Old Vic directing The Price, Translations, Quartermaine's Terms, The White Devil, Good Fun and La Ronde. At Stratford East she directed Sleeping Beauty and The Proposal. She was the Staff Director at the Royal National Theatre on The Passion, Larkrise, Fruits of Enlightenment and Strife. She also devised and directed a programme of erotic poetry called Making Love, and was the first woman to direct a play at the National Theatre, Lies in Plastic Smiles devised by the company and written by Gawn Grainger. In the West End she directed September Tide at the Comedy Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Jack and the Beanstalk at the Shaw Theatre and three world premieres: Beached, Sinners and Saints and Bet Noir at the New Vic and Warehouse Theatre. Bannerman has a long association with Sands Films, starting by playing the title character Biddy in Christine Edzard's film Biddy followed by setting up Edzard's first big feature film Little Dorrit and casting the 200 actors. Little Dorrit was nominated for two Oscars and won the LA Film Critics Award. Also for Sands Films she cast The Fool, As You Like It and A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia which won an Emmy for Best Drama. She has been a dialect coach and a children's acting coach on several movies including Seven Years in Tibet, Two Brothers, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Nanny McPhee. In September 2025, Bannerman was cast as one of the 'Mermaids of Manningtree' in the upcoming film The Man with the Plan about the Beveridge Report, directed by Christine Edzard for Sands Films.

Bannerman is married to Edward Klein. Her parents were Hugh Bannerman and Hilda Bannerman, née Diamond. Her brother is Julian Bannerman.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1974 — The Tamarind Seed — Rachel Paterson • 1983 — Biddy — Biddy • 1987 — Little Dorrit — The Milliner • 1992 — As You Like It — Celia • 1998 — The Land Girls — District Commissioner • 2026 — The Man with the Plan — a Mermaid of Manningtree

• Year — Film — Role — Notes • 1965 — Object Z — Diana Winters — 6 episodes • 1967 — Blandings Castle — Jane — Episode: "Lord Emsworth and the Crime Wave at Blandings" • Pride and Prejudice — Elizabeth Bennet — 6 episodes • 1968 — Thirty-Minute Theatre — The Actress — Episode: "The Bishop and The Actress" • 1969 — W. Somerset Maugham — Iris Maitland — Episode: "Louise" • Albert! — Lucy — Episode: "The Good Samaritan" • 1970 — Vile Bodies — Nina Blount — TV movie • 1971 — ITV Sunday Night Theatre — Sue Quarry — Episode: "Tales of Piccadilly: The Way Out" • Crime of Passion — Agathe Bernois — Episode: "Justine" • 1972 — Armchair Theatre — Miss Arrowroot — Episode: "The Folk Singer" • 1973 — The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes — Milly Revell — Episode: "The Missing Q.C.s" • Upstairs, Downstairs — Diana Newbury/Lady Diana Russell — 4 episodes • 1974 — Play of the Month — Cecily Cardew — Episode: "The Importance of Being Earnest" • Affairs of the Heart — Cora Prodmore — Episode: "Grace" • 1975 — Ten From the Twenties — Grace Peddley — Episode: "Two or Three Graces" • Shades of Greene — The Girl — Episode: "The Invisible Japanese Gentleman" • 1977 — Wings — Kate Gaylion — 4 episodes • 1982 — For the Love of Egypt — Kate Bradbury — TV movie • Chronicle — Kate Bradbury — Episode: "For the Love of Egypt" • 1985 — Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV — Pippa — Episode #1.4 • 1988 — Screenplay — Mrs. Ansell — Episode: "No Further Cause for Concern" • 1992 — Performance — Miss Potter — Episode: "After the Dance" • 2006 — Bad Girls — Mrs. Fisk — Episode #8.8 • 2007 — Hindenburg: The Untold Story — Margaret Mather — TV movie documentary • 2014 — 14 Tagebücher des Ersten Weltkriegs — Sarah Macnaughtan — 2 episodes