Webchat with Helen Fielding - RESCHEDULED! Come and chat to Bridget Jones author TOMORROW, (Weds 14 December), 9-10pm

[SorchaMumsnet]

Calling all Bridget Jones fans! We’re giving you the chance to put your questions to Helen Fielding who is joining us for a webchat on Thursday 27 October between 9 and 10pm.
Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries is the latest installment charting the life of this literary phenomenon. Everyone who joins the webchat will be entered into a draw to win one of two SIGNED copies of Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries.

Helen is one of the country’s greatest comic writers. Bridget Jones’s Baby is her sixth book and she is part of the screenwriting team on the three films. We're really honoured that she's agreed to give us her time on Thursday from her home in Los Angeles, so please do come along and join the chat. If you’re unable to make that time, feel free to post up a question in advance to this thread.

please note the webchat has been postponed. We're hoping it will take place next Wednesday (3 November) between 9 and 10pm. We have posted up a statement from Helen's team in the thread below.

[IWasBeingAffable]

Hi Helen, thank you so much for giving us Bridget Jones. I've burst out loud laughing reading your books on public transport, and received many weird looks for doing so. My question is one you might have been expecting: are you going to bring Darcy back from the dead if you write more Bridget Jones? Maybe he was held captive in Darfur? Amnesia? I don't know, anything! Please bring him back!

[Pickofthepops]

Thanks so much for writing Bridget Jones's baby - it was a fantastic read. I wondered if you know of any thing bad having happened in John Lewis in real life as you make it clear that nothing bad is really allowed to happen. So true but got the impression you'd seen something in real life that came pretty bloody close

[Tarla]

Hi, love the Bridget Jones books! Thank you for doing a web chat :)

My question is, were you surprised at how disappointed many fans were with Mad About the Boy and did you regret killing off Darcy as a result?

[FucksSakeSusan]

I really enjoyed Mad About the Boy - and was surprised at the negativity about it! I thought it was great to see a character going through such a tough time but making it out of the darkness OK in the end.

Do you think there is an unwillingness for audiences to face the possibility of a happy ever after not being so for ever, and how do you deal with the backlash as an author?

[VanillaSugarandTeamPortia]

I thought Mad About the Boy was perfect closure for Bridget. I believe it could be filmed to include flashbacks with Mark Darcy; there's actually quite a lot of material and potential. Do you think there will be another film or is BJ'sB the finale?

[MycatsaPirate]

I adore the BJ books, have read them over and over and can honestly say the first two films were perfect adaptations of the books.

But why on earth did you kill off Mark Darcy? I was so disappointed when I read Mad About the Boy. It just wasn't the same for me at all. Mark Darcy was a pivotal character in the books and to just kill him off was just not on!

And I'm sorry but no-one goes to a Nit Doctor. They buy a comb from Boots and deal with it themselves.

Seriously disappointed with the book all in all.

[Susan24175]

Hi Helen.
Love the Bridget jones books and films.Did you base Bridget's character on any one you know?

[Whichoneisit]

Hi Helen,
I've always wondered whether my exH was the inspiration for one of the characters in books. He tells the story of you arriving in the kitchen on a Sunday morning and you declaring that he was boring for doing exactly the same as everyone else. Wonder if you remember who he is.....it must have been the guardian!

[purpleponcho]

Love the books, but the films were dire. They seemed to miss the satire completely.

Were you disappointed in how things were done wrt the films?

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

Love the books & films but agree with a previous poster that the death of Mark Darcy was really shocking Do you regret killing him off?

[barricade]

Wow, Helen Fielding .. absolute legend! Would so love to win a signed copy, what a fantastic prize!!

(okay, let's calm down ...)

My question/s:- How different, and how much of a challenge, was writing the film screenplays as compared to writing your books? Were you under pressure from the film studio to add/omit elements that you were not happy with? And finally, how pleased were you with the final films?

[MustBeThursday]

Hi Helen!

My question is did you write The Baby Diaries before the film was in production, or after? I wondered if the book was how you'd have liked the film to go in an ideal world.

[FeelingSmurfy]

Hi, my parents read your books when they first came out and when I was old enough they got me in to reading them

Who is your favourite author and do you read the same genre you write?

[ImperialBlether]

MustBeThursday, the book was out in 2013, so obviously it was written before the film!

[ImperialBlether]

I love the books and although I like the films, it as though there's no connection between the two, in my opinion.

My question, which I doubt you'll answer for reasons of tact is this: which character do you think most and least resembles the characters in your books?

For me the most similar was Daniel Cleaver - I think Hugh Grant does a fantastic job, whereas the least similar is Mark Darcy who, in the film, is completely wooden and dull.

[moglovespumpkins]

Absolutely loved the first two books, not so much the third (was a Mark fan). My question is why was the storyline about her mum running off not included in the same way in the films as in the books?

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

I've read all 4 books (the first is my comfort food go-to book and I first read it in one fell swoop in an airport during a lengthy stop-over)

Do you feel that the second two have been a bit like a Coldplay writing songs thing? (ie it's fairly obvious that Coldplay write songs thinking about how they are going to sound in a ginormous stadium) The second two books, to me, read more like film scripts. Were you already thinking in terms of "well, it's bound to be a film so...."

[moreslackthanslick]

Hi Helen! I loved all the books, even "Mad About The Boy" as a pp said, it was nice to see someone come through a tough time.

Were you initially shocked that Renee Zellwegger ended up playing Bridget or were you involved with her selection?

. Either way she's done a brilliant job.

[SallySwann]

How difficult was it recreating such an iconic character as Bridget Jones and were you at all worried that people wouldn't like the sequel?

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

Hello Helen

Loved Bridget Jones's Diary, Edge of Reason, your original Bridget Jones's Baby columns and Mad about the boy (the latter I would love to see filmed with Colin flashbacks, Jim Sturgess/Chris Hemsworth or Alex Pettyfer as Roxter and Greg Davies as Mr Wallaker! and Hugh back depending on how his absence was dealt with in the third movie: am in Germany will be seeing it this weekend at our English cinema, can't wait!)

My question:
I am confused as to your new book.
Is it:

a) The old baby columns exactly as they were published
b) The old baby columns but with a different outcome (I am with you in preferring Daniel, particularly as played by Hugh) and am not remotely bothered you killed off Mark in MATB. He can do a truly madly deeply ghost or flashback if they do a fourth movie.
c) The old baby columns in part but updated
d) Brand new columns

Irrespective of a/b/c/d why did you opt to keep Daniel in rather than a rewrite substituting him for McDreamy (Jack?) if it is meant to be a movie tie-in or was Jack Emma Thompson's creation alone? Were you happy with the film or did you feel 'your baby', pun intended, was adopted and developed in a totally different way? Could you ever have seen Bridget ending up with Daniel in novelization or film or a fifth book or are they in friend zone forevermore as the fans won't have it! cept me

Thank you in advance x

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

Oh and almost forgot...
The Bridget Jones Musical which was linked to Sheridan Smith (workshopping it?) and Lily Allen at one point...you are reported to have said should happen in the next few years. How soon is now?! Do you see it taking as long to produce as the BJB movie and how frustrating for you is that process? (Would Hugh have taken part in the movie if scripts had shown him as a stand up guy rather than feckless/unreliable

[Angelil]

Love the books and films! My mother would like to know: is Bridget Jones your alter ego?

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

Last one (I know the rules but sometimes if a question is the same several times, like killing off Mark then I stick a few more in).
Would you consider writing a fourth film screenplay or fifth book called Bridget Jones: the married years which deals with the humdrum of married life or would that be far too depressing! Which story would you deem was "worth telling" for a fourth film (and doesn't MATB appeal as an adaptation?)

Look forward to your webchat. Will read live if I can get 3dc settled and I remind myself I am an hour ahead to get the time right for a change....
Thanks again for the books, have cheered me up through bleak Winters x

[SouthWestmom]

The only question - snog, marry, avoid?

Mark Darcy
Daniel Cleaver
Jack

??

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

^Oh noeuf that is the best question!