More than bagels in Ridley Road

THE actress who plays Bridget Jones’s best friend in the latest blockbuster is writing a screenplay about the fight against fascism in London’s East End.

Sarah Solemani, who stars as Miranda alongside Renee Zellweger’s eponymous character, is adapting the novel Ridley Road by Jo Bloom for the BBC.

The project, which is in the “very early stages” according to RED Production Company, tells the story of a young hairdresser who moves to Ridley Road in the 1960s, when Jewish Londoners were clashing with farright street gangs.