Staffordshire Newsletter (Stone Edition)
THE FOURTH BRIDGE
WITH THREE HIT FILMS BEHIND HER, CHAOTIC FICTIONAL DIARIST BRIDGET JONES IS SET FOR MORE ADVENTURES. MARION McMULLEN TAKES A LOOK BACK AT HER EARLY YEARS
WINE-LOVING Bridget Jones made her first appearance as a fictional character in a newspaper column almost 30 years ago.
The then-singleton started detailing her weight, alcohol intake and cigarettes smoked back in 1995. Her view of life as a thirtysomething on the dating scene proved so popular that a book followed.
Writer Helen Fielding originally penned the column anonymously but brought out Bridget Jones’s Diary in 1996, followed by the Edge Of Reason two years later.
They sold more than 15 million copies and were published in 40 countries. A third book, Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries, was published in 2016.
The first book began with a long list of Bridget’s new year resolutions, which included a promise not to drink more than 14 alcohol units a week, not to smoke and to spend more than she earned.
She also vowed not to waste money on pasta makers, ice cream machines or other culinary devices which would never be used, buy books by unreadable literary authors to put impressively on shelves or splash out on exotic underwear – “since pointless as have no boyfriend”.
It was inevitable that a movie would follow. American star Renée Zellweger produced a flawless British accent, put on 25lbs and worked at a British publishing company for a month as she prepared to play Bridget in 2001.
Alexandra Heminsley was a junior press officer at Picador when a young woman called Bridget arrived for two weeks’ work experience in 2000. Little did she know it was actually Renée who was there to research the part of her alter-ego.
Alexandra recalled: “We sat on opposite sides of the partition, so if I stood up I could see her desk. The phones diverted to me and to her. There was no social media then, you had to answer the phone.
“After two or three days, I started to hear her say, ‘Hello, publicity,’ just like me, and I wondered if she was taking the mickey.
“After she’d left, she wrote me a
to thank me for looking after her, so I didn’t feel like I’d been taken for a fool – and I had a laugh with my boss about it.”
The movie became an international success, with Bridget observing: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going OK, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”
Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant, as Daniel Cleaver, kept Bridget’s love life interesting and the film’s publicity proclaimed “Health Warning: Adopting Bridget’s lifestyle could seriously damage your health”.
Renée said: “I think we can all relate to Bridget standing in a hallway wanting to know ‘Do you love me or not?’ She just blurts it out and maybe that makes her seem like she’s not strong. I think she’s very brave because she’s speaking her mind.”
Two more films followed and Hugh said he enjoyed doing another fight scene with Colin Firth in Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Realetter son in 2004. “It was the same approach as the first one, which was just to make sure that it was as c**p as we wanted it to be.
“The key is to stop the stunt coordinator from coming in to make it look like a film fight. We just wanted it to be two pathetic Englishmen scared of each other, throwing their handbags at each other, basically.” Renée and Hugh are set to reprise their roles of Bridget and the caddish Cleaver in the fourth film instalment of Bridget Jones.
The romantic comedy, titled Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy will see 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and One Day actor Leo Woodall join the cast, while Emma Thompson is to return as Bridget’s obstetrician.
The movie is set for an American release on Valentine’s Day 2025.
It has not been confirmed when it will debut in the UK.
Helen Fielding has previously explained that she had decided to write Bridget’s love interest Mark Darcy out of the fourth book in the popular series because she didn’t want Bridget to become “a smug married”.
In the novel Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Bridget is now a widow in her 50s with two children, as it is revealed Mark has died some years earlier.
Reflecting on the enduring appeal of her literary heroine, Helen has said: “Sometimes people claim that Bridget was the godmother of chick lit. But the truth is it wasn’t just Bridget or me, it was zeitgeist.
“The fictional representation of single women had not caught up with reality.”
I think we can all relate to Bridget standing in a hallway wanting to know ‘Do you love me or not?
Renée Zellweger