This week on the show, Karen Peterson — co-host of the Citizen Dame Podcast and The Watch and Talk — joins us to discuss director Sharon Maguire’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. The 2001 romantic comedy, based on Helen Fielding’s best-selling book, not only made Renee Zellweger a bonafide leading lady but earned the actress her first Academy Award nomination.

We’ll discuss what makes the titular character (and Zellweger’s performance) so memorable, how Maguire’s film cleverly reinterprets Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice for the modern era and why Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy is such a tricky role to pull off onscreen. Plus, is Hugh Grant’s turn as the rascally Daniel Cleaver the prototype for his BAFTA-nominated performance in Paddington 2? Join us as we crack open Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Bridget Jones’s Diary synopsis, courtesy of Miramax:

Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) is a busy journalist and singleton lost amid a sea of smug-marrieds in London. After vowing to abandon her many vices, Bridget turns over a new page by channeling her opinions and insecurities in a journal that becomes a hilarious chronicle of her misadventures. Soon, Bridget finds herself stuck in the sights of not one, but two men: her dashing boss Daniel (Hugh Grant), who thrives on bad behavior; and the brooding Mark (Colin Firth), who she despises but somehow can’t get away from.

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