Is it time to stop bashing Bridget Jones? Hapless everywoman has evolved – and so have we

Bridget Jones, played by Renée Zellweger, with one of her new love interests, Roxster, Leo Woodall, in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Photograph: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures

Bridget Jones is back. The fabled diary (probably a Surface Pro now) has snapped back open. The cigarettes are doubtless replaced by a Vaporesso vape.

The new film, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, again starring Renée Zellweger, is being released into cine­mas on Valentine’s day, which feels appropriate. One of the most emotionally charged days of the year for the return of one of Britain’s more emotionally charged exports.