Bridget Jones's Diary saga

Bridget Jones, the thirty-something Londoner who logs her weight, drinks, cigarettes and romantic disasters in her diary, was born in Helen Fielding's columns and novels, loosely inspired by 'Pride and Prejudice'. 'Bridget Jones's Diary' (2001), directed by Sharon Maguire, earned Renée Zellweger an Oscar nomination, caught between the charming Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and the stiff Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

Beeban Kidron's 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason' (2004) carried on the triangle, and twelve years later 'Bridget Jones's Baby' (2016), again from Maguire, faced Bridget with motherhood and two possible fathers, Darcy and a new suitor played by Patrick Dempsey.

'Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy' (2025), directed by Michael Morris and released on Valentine's Day, showed a widowed Bridget, mother of two, falling in love again, with Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor. That makes four films in almost a quarter of a century.