Bridget Jones would risk ‘death by chardonnay’ in real life”, read one somewhat hysterical headline upon the release of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth film in the popular franchise based on Helen Fielding’s series of books.
This latest instalment, which sees Renée Zellweger return once more as everyone’s favourite frazzled yet loveable lead, proved that the eponymous heroine has something quite the opposite of what that po-faced headline might suggest: longevity. It’s now been almost 25 years since she first hit our screens in 2001, and the new film has recorded the highest-ever opening for a romcom in the UK. Bridget fever is clearly doing anything but diminishing as the decades roll by.
