BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY AT 20

Working Title had six words of advice for director Sharon Maguire when they hired her on Bridget Jones’s Diary: “Try not to screw it up.”

Though it may be hard to believe, the 2001 film – which has just turned 20 years old – was described at the time as “a guerrilla indie project”. There was no certainty that it would go on to become a hit, though it was based on a hugely successful novel (and series of columns) by writer Helen Fielding. But this indie project, made for around £18million, raked in more than £280m worldwide. Now, two sequels and two decades on, our introduction to Bridget Jones – with its turkey curry, Christmas jumpers and fights in the street – has attained iconic status. How did it happen?

Maguire knew Fielding well, and was in fact the basis for Sally Phillips’ character Shazza, a feature of both the columns and the film. They were part of a group of friends in a, “was to be settling down and having babies.” They were running around the capital loving life, but, as self-described feminists, “doing a lot of questioning at the same time.”