Bridginton In Peru: Mad About The Bear

The latest cinema outings for two British cultural treasures.

(Clockwise from top left) Bridget Jones’ Diary, Paddington, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Paddington In Peru.

This week sees the release in the USA of the latest entries in the film canon of two huge British pop culture characters.

Both are massively popular. Both very relatable to their target audiences. Both owed their initial massive popularity to the written word, but the movies took this to another level.

Paddington Brown and Bridget Jones inhabit the same cinematic universe - a timeless, bohemian version of London, time period approximately any time from the nineteen-fifties to the twenty-twenties and counting.

Home to the Banks family in Mary Poppins, Georgy Girl, Hitchcock’s Frenzy, old TV series such as The Avengers, Adam Adamant Lives and Here Come The Double Deckers, and newer sitcoms like Motherland, among many others.

You could call it the London Cinematic Universe (TM).

The Creation Of Bridget Jones

First appearance of Bridget, 1996.

Bridget Jones. Age 29. Ethnicity white, English born and bred, middle-class, posh voice although possibly a voice coach was involved somewhere, drinks too much (23 units this week), bit overweight by her estimation.¹

In the nineties, journalist Helen Fielding worked in London for the Independent newspaper writing book reviews and 6,000-word articles with titles like “Whither The Countryside?” (spoiler alert - it did).

She described the genesis of Bridget Jones in a 2016 interview with NPR:

The British newspapers were — and still are — full of columns where people just sort of go on and on about things, just ordinary things in their lives. And people kept asking me to write about being a single girl in London. And I'm quite private, so I would always say no, no, that's too exposing and embarrassing. But then I said no, I'll make up this character.

The columns were so popular that Fielding nailed a deal to adapt them into book form, and Bridget Jones’ Diary, describing a year in Bridget’s life, was published in 1996.

By 2006 it had sold over two million copies.

The first three Bridget Jones films

Dodgy Uncle Geoffrey (“not really my uncle”) didn’t pass on the message that it was no longer a Vicars And Tarts party.

Bridget Jones’ Diary hit the screens in 2001, to rave reviews and massive popular approval.

Bridget Jones, “spinster of this parish”, is approaching middle age without a man, although buoyed by an excellent group of friends including all the modern staple comic characters - the sweary one, the gay one and the mournful one.

She works at a London publishing house where she avoids the unwanted attentions of middle-manager Mr Fitzherbert (“tits-pervert”) while carrying on a long-term flirting game with her womanising boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, in a previously unheard of bad-boy role).

Enter childhood friend Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), named after the character in Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice played in the BBC adaptation by the same actor, a gag that never gets any less funny with each rewatch. A classic love triangle ensues, culminating in the two men fighting over her in the street, surely every girl’s dream.

Sales of prosecco and “absolutely enormous pants” from M&S rocketed, also those fetching red pyjamas.

Any concerns about casting Renee Zellweger, presumably with an eye on the American market, were dispelled by her excellent performance, and respect for her de Niro-like commitment to the role by gaining thirty pounds for what she called “a once in a lifetime project”.

"I put on a few pounds. I also put on some breasts and a baby bump. Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much. No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role."

A sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, was released in 2004. It was fine, with some decent gags, as Bridget once again bumps into Daniel, who has not changed one bit, but lacked the impact of the original, and included the somewhat dispiriting sight of Bridget leading thirty or so inmates in a disgusting Thai women’s prison in a singalong of Madonna’s Like A Virgin.

Fourteen years later came Bridget Jones’ Baby - without Hugh Grant, who was originally set to appear but politely excused himself, possibly because he read the script². Daniel Cleaver was missing, presumed dead for most of the film, which indeed begins at his funeral.

Pity poor Patrick Dempsey, who came in late to play the other corner of the triangle, putting in a decent performance as substitute, but a Bridget Jones film without Daniel was never going to work properly. Although there was light at the end of the tunnel right at the end with a newspaper headline to the effect that he had been found alive.

And that was that. Until Valentine’s Day, 2025…

The Creation Of Paddington

First appearance of Paddington - 1958.

Paddington Brown. Aged 14 (bear years, estimate). Strengths - kindness, hard stares, unquenchable optimism. Weaknesses - marmalade sandwiches, kept under hat.

When we first met Paddington he was a small, lonely bear on a railway station with a luggage label round his neck reading “Please Look After This Bear”.

The books tell the story of a charming examination of the generally positive experiences of a foreign bear in London. Michael Bond spoke about the inspiration for the character in a 2007 interview with The Independent:

Living in Reading during the war, I can remember train-loads of refugees coming down from London. A lot of the children had luggage labels round their necks with their names and addresses on them ... I felt it would say a lot about the Brown family that they were prepared to take in a refugee like Paddington.

Michael Bond wrote twenty-nine Paddington books and lived long enough to see his creation become a TV and movie sensation as well as a publishing phenomenon.

There was a pre-evening News TV series in the 70s narrated by Michael Hordern, which is fondly remembered, and the cuddly Paddington Bear toys started rolling off the production line in 1972, but Paddingtonmania proper began in 2014, by which time CGI technology was able to believably render Paddington next to all the supporting characters on screen.

It is no coincidence that the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began around this time.

The first two Paddington films

To be fair, if there was a bear in a duffle coat eating a marmalade sandwich on the London Underground, nobody would bat an eyelid.

If he lit a cigarette, though…

2014’s Paddington movie is partly based on A Bear Called Paddington. Among other things, finally and, brilliantly for long-term fans, we discover a rationale for Paddington’s addiction to marmalade.

The film has plenty of current references but retains the charm of the books, not least Paddington’s spectacular propensity for always trying to do the right thing, but getting into scrapes without meaning to.

On the face of it a naive young bear, fresh off the boat and a prime candidate for exploitation, he is extremely resilient, especially in the face of meanness.

The plot concerns an evil taxidermist (Nicole Kidman) who plots to add Paddington to her collection with the aid of nosey neighbour Mr. Curry (Peter Capaldi).

A superb film, coming two years after the London Olympics, it was possibly the last era when I would still occasionally feel proud to be British.

Paddington 2 came out in 2017. Now the rule of thumb is that sequels are never better than the original, but this one is.³ Paddington is framed for a robbery by Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant again), a massively egotistical actor,⁴ and sent to prison, where he is assigned laundry duty.

After a shaky start where a red sock unfortunately turns the inmates’ uniforms from black and white to sepia and pink, he manages to win them over and is befriended by the magnificently-named cook Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson), who helps him escape to clear his name.

Knuckles McGinty does his own laundry, apparently.

In 2024 the third film came out, and on seeing the trailer, I was fearful that by taking Paddington away from the centre of the LCU they had messed with the concept too much.

But as it turns out…

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy & Paddington In Peru

At the time of writing, neither film has been out very long so I’m deliberately keeping this a little vague.

Paddingon In Peru begins with the young bear receiving a message from the Home For Retired Bears in Lima with the worrying news that his Aunt Lucy has gone missing up the jungle. The family accompany him to Peru, and they all set out to find her.

Having Paddington return home for this third instalment is the obvious and fitting thing to do, with an excellent plot and a change in the style of the previous movies from gentle Brit comedy to full-on adventure comedy.

Olivia Colman plays the singing nun who runs the Home, while Antonio Banderas is excellent as the captain of the boat the family commission to help them find Aunt Lucy.

The high point for me was one particular “homage”. You’ll recognise it when you see it, I’m sure.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy opens with her grieving for the very recent loss of her human-rights lawyer husband Mark, killed in Sudan while on a peace mission.

A tweak rather than a change in style, with the rom-com element underpinned by a genuinely moving plot. Also lots of male chest (courtesy of the eponymous Boy) for the core audience to go Mad About.

Both films have very satifying endings. Both films are an excellent addition to their respective franchises.

What’s next for both franchises?

As always, it will depend on the box office returns. Mad About The Boy has only just been released in British cinemas as I write this, but has seemingly recorded the highest-ever opening weekend for a rom-com, and this against Captain America.

However, it does seem that, plot-wise, Bridget’s story is now at a natural end, and perhaps they should leave it at that. The latest film was so well done that I can’t really see where they could go.

As regards Paddington In Peru, although the trilogy arc is now complete, without giving away the ending, you do get the feeling that there are more stories to be told on the big screen about the Bear with the Hard Stare.

I’d personally love to see a crossover which involves Paddington, returned from Peru, living next door to Bridget. Bridget Jones: The Bear Next Door or maybe Paddington: A Bridge Too Far?

May go and write it now actually.

I mean, “Fifty Shades Of Grey” started life as Twilight fan-fiction, so that means I can legit stan Bridget and Paddington, right? Right?

1. A body type that, let’s be honest here, most men love and most women find easy to maintain, so win-win.

2. This has been denied by the producer.

3. In fact, there are many sequels that are superior to the original. Iron Man 2, Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan, Godfather 2, Spider-Man 2 (the Tobey Maguire one). It’s more of a guideline of thumb.

4. Typecast again!