IS BRIDGET STLL AS RELATABLE as she once was?

We fellin love with her in the noughties, but the weight-obsessed culture has moved on

- BRYONY GORDON

It’s a film we all love, because, let’s face it, Bridget Jones is a character we can all relate to in some way – whether it’s her unpredictable love life, clumsy antics, or brutally honest friends. And this month sees the fourth instalment begin its production – 23 years after the first film was released. The latest sequel will be based on the 2013 book, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which follows the 51-year-old single mother of two children as she navigates dating in an era of social media and online apps. But it’s more than just technology that has changed since weight-conscious Bridget first graced our screens in 2001. So how is Hollywood going to rebrand poor old Bridget for a generation who only know body positivity and self-acceptance? Woman investigates…

‘SHE CAN’T SEE HOW BLOODY GREAT SHE IS’

Bryony Gordon, 43, is a writer.

Bridget Jones is back, and much like the supermarket Chardonnay she was so fond of drinking in the 90s and 00s, she has not aged well. I wouldn’t usually be so disparaging about another woman, but given that this one is entirely fictional, I will make an exception.

The news that the final Bridget Jones book is being made into a movie has filled me with a dreadful feeling of ennui, similar to the one I developed back in 2008, when, for the 867th time, someone described me as ‘a right Bridget Jones’ because I was a size 14 and didn’t have a boyfriend. There was no greater crime in the 00s, and thanks to Helen Fielding’s calorie counting anti-heroine, boy did we all know it.