Bridget Jones: A heroine of our time or an absolute disgrace?

A perennial singleton among the smug marrieds, with a passion for Chardonnay, big knickers and emotional f***wits.

Who is Bridget Jones and why is she beloved by so many?

Created by Helen Fielding as an anonymous way to write about being a single girl in London, Bridget first came to life in a weekly column in the Independent.

Fielding didn’t think it would last six weeks. She was very wrong, and Bridget Jones is still alive and kicking nearly three decades later with four novels, four movies and a legion of fans worldwide.

First off, we have to pay homage to Jane Austen. Without Pride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones wouldn’t exist.

The entire plot line of Bridget Jones’s Diary is built around the love triangle of Elizabeth Bennett, the dashing but aloof Mr Darcy and the absolute cad Mr Wickham – but retold in1990s London with Bridget, Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver.

As a drinking, smoking, swearing and non-corset-wearing Elizabeth Bennett, Bridget was a big hit. Set loose in the capital in the hedonistic ’90s, there was plenty of fun to be had, and plenty to poke fun at.

Created pre-social media, we can only imagine a world in which Bridget was documenting her weight and alcohol units on TikTok instead of in her diary…

The first movie

There was a media meltdown when American actress Renee Zellweger was cast as Bridget Jones, and the fact she put on 25lbs for the role was front-page news for months. It’s fair to say the obsession with Zellweger’s weight has pretty much continued to this day.

With life imitating art, while Bridget religiously notes her weight every day in her diary, the world became obsessed with Zellweger’s own size – very much proving the point that her character’s obsessive relationship with the scales reflected society’s obsession with female appearance.

Of course, we don’t know how tall Bridget is, so despite knowing her daily calorie intake and weight to the pound, we have no idea how big or small she actually is, just her own perception of her size.

Meanwhile, qualms over how convincing Zellweger would be at pulling off a British accent were quickly quashed when she nailed it, with the help of the same voice coach who worked with Gwyneth Paltrow on Shakespeare In Love. It’s faultless.

Brat Bridget and feminist Marmite

Bridget was Brat long before Brat was a thing. Smoking like a chimney, with a questionable dress sense and sporting hair that – unlike pretty much 99% of films – looks messy and real, Bridget was relatable and became an instant icon to many women – particularly those over 35 – who felt largely ignored by society.

However, the character was feminist Marmite – while some loved Bridget, others hated her and everything she stood for.

Some felt her obsession with her appearance and finding a man flew in the face of what it meant to be an independent woman – and everything the first waves of the feminist movement had fought for.

Others thought that for a generation that had been told they could have it all, Bridget’s battles to try to achieve all that society told her she should, were a valiant attempt to triumph in an impossible situation.

Principled, honest and unwaveringly kind – while Bridget may not have been perfect, in an era of heroin chic, lad mags and outrageously unrealistic beauty standards, there were plenty less wholesome role models for young women to aspire to.

Pre-MeToo world

The first books and films came to life in a pre-MeToo world and boy do you know it – there’s lots of bum-pinching, and inappropriate comments in the office and beyond. Mr Tits Pervert was not an anomaly.

Helen Fielding has since said she was shocked when rewatching to note the amount of inappropriate behaviour Bridget has to put up with.

Each film has a structure running from the end of one year, through Christmas and New Year, and looking ahead to a new start.

Nostalgic soundtracks are a staple, with lip-synced favourites a mainstay of every film. If you’ve never cried into your wine glass while singing All By Myself, you’ve never lived.

The films also have a largely returning cast – who like Bridget have been in our lives for years. Watching them grow up from movie to movie – as we do too – is part of the joy.

We also get to look forward to a ‘Mr Darcy in the lake moment’ in every film – be it in a river, an aqua aerobic pre-natal class or a pond, with the latest re-enactment courtesy of a half-naked Leo Woodall – who incidentally was born in the year the first novel was published.

The fight scenes in the first two films have also become something of a cultural touchstone, largely thanks to the fact that middle-aged men ineffectually kicking each other while hopping around is rarely portrayed on the silver screen.

The second film

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason sees Bridget continue her unbelievably lucky streak when it comes to jobs. While she started out as a PR in a publishing house (most notably promoting the highbrow read Kafka’s Motorbike) she then stumbled into TV production, which quickly and inexplicably segued into becoming a TV presenter.

In this movie she lands the dream role of a travel presenter, despite a complete lack of geographical knowledge, and it provides the basis of the plot which revolves around getting stranded in Thailand after accidentally smuggling drugs.

We can’t ignore some issues around this one, not least scenes in a Thai jail in which Bridget sings some Madonna and then hands out bras and chocolate before being freed by Mark Darcy. The movie faced criticism for perpetuating “white saviour” stereotypes, and is not Bridget’s finest moment.

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Unexpected cameos punctuate the first three movies – from Salman Rushdie and Jeremy Paxman, to Paul Nicholls (aka Joe Wicks from EastEnders – a massive heartthrob at the time), to Ed Sheeran.

The third film

Bridget Jones meets Three Men And A Baby in the third movie Bridget Jones’s Baby, with the novel actually following the film rather than vice versa. It was based on articles written by Fielding in 2005.

Spoiler alert – Hugh Grant wasn’t up for this one. Luckily, Patrick Dempsey – the man who played Dr McDreamy in Grey’s Anatomy – stepped in. It good-naturedly cracks through the challenges of having a baby as a geriatric, single-working mum and somehow picking the right guy at the end of it all. Bridget gets her fairytale wedding, her man and of course becomes a mum.

While the first couple of films contained more smoking than would be believed, this one saw the franchise ditch the habit, a reflection both of Bridget’s new responsibilities and the changing fashions of the time.

While Grant sat this one out, there was hope for fans that he would return thanks to a cheeky front-page splash at the end of the film declaring him alive and well a year after he was presumed dead following a plane crash (in the bush).

The fourth film

It’s not quite a full-on reunion for the fourth film – but almost. Bridget’s life has taken some unexpected turns, and while Daniel Cleaver may have risen from the dead, there is a new and much bigger hole in her life.

You will need to take tissues into this one, unless you have a heart of stone.

While past casts have been notable for their lack of diversity, this one also looks a bit more like the multicultural capital Bridget lives in.

Bridget now has a shelf full of diaries and rye observances include a takedown of the dismissal of “women of a certain age”, a lip-filler-esque fail that pokes fun at attempts to cheat age and the baffling modern phenomenon of buttonless lifts.

The end of an era?

Is this the end for Bridget? For now. The exploration of her life from her early 30s to her mid-50s has seen her find love, forge a career and have a family. But it’s not out of the question we could venture into the next stages of her life at some point.

Helen Fielding is still writing books, just not about Bridget. With a new legion of Gen Z fans now introduced to – and loving – Bridget, never say never.

And while Bridget may have found her happy ever after – all fans of the books will know It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces. So, watch this space.