Why Bridget Jones remains an endearing character, almost 25 years after first film

Dubai: Bridget Jones first bumbled her way into our hearts in a scene from 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, where she yelled ‘OY!’ over a seemingly faulty microphone to summon a roomful of famous literary figures at a book launch party. It was impossible not to laugh, while still being painfully reminded of how teenage awkwardness tends to follow us well into adulthood. 

 Jones, created by British author Helen Fielding as the protagonist of four of her bestselling novels, seamlessly made the transition to the big screen for the first time in Bridget Jones’s Diary, with Renée Zellweger portraying the titular character. 

When we first meet her, 32-year-old Bridget works in publicity, loves a catch-up with her supportive “urban family” of friends, loyally attends her mother’s annual turkey curry buffet over Christmas, and, of course, is on the lookout for true love. 

Two more films (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones’s Baby) and almost twenty-five years later, the hapless but lovable Bridget, by now a British cultural icon, still has us cheering her on. Ahead of the release of the fourth film in this delightful franchise, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, we take a look at why Bridget remains an endearing figure on screen: 

A fling with a handsome stranger (Patrick Dempsey) at a music festival in Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016). Agonising over what to wear when Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) proposes in 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Whether she’s making questionable life decisions, struggling with her weight, contemplating her fashion choices, or just having a silly moment, Bridget Jones has always been supremely relatable.

We love the iconic quitting scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary where Bridget’s caddish boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), with whom she has a brief relationship, gets his comeuppance. She delivers a stinging final speech in front of everyone and proudly walks out, with Aretha Franklin’s Respect playing, rather appropriately, in the background.

Whether Bridget is trying to squeeze into “teenage skinny jeans” (Bridget Jones’s Baby) or accidentally entering a skiing race after lying about her skills (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), you can be sure you’ll be in splits either way. We love that there’s light-heartedness and hilarity at the heart of all three Bridget Jones films, thanks majorly to Renée Zellweger’s excellent comic timing. 

Bridget always seems to have a mood-appropriate song at hand. Sad after a messy break-up? Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman is a perfectly empowering singalong, after which Bridget decides to take control of her life. Feeling blue and alone on your 43rd birthday? Don’t just sit there, get up and bust a move - like Bridget - to House of Pain’s Jump Around! 

Bridget shares a sweet bond with her long-time “urban family” Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (James Callis) and Jude (Shirley Henderson), who, like most good friends, both make sense of life with each other’s help and also dish out bad advice. She’s close to her parents, Pamela (Gemma Jones) and Colin (Jim Broadbent) too, even though she refers to her mother in Bridget Jones’s Diary as “a strange creature from the time when a gherkin was the height of sophistication” and is introduced to Mark Darcy for the first time wearing a “carpet” chosen by Pamela! 

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor, releases on February 13 in the UAE