Hugh Grant Talks Bridget Jones 4, Teases Daniel Cleaver’s ‘Third Dimension’

With the Bridget Jones franchise getting ready for another diary entry, Daniel Cleaver actor Hugh Grant teased that the fourth installment in the romantic comedy film series — titled Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — is “extremely funny” but also emotional.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy has already wrapped filming in London and is set to stream on Peacock after it hits theaters on February 14, 2025. It will follow the title character in her fifties as she attempts to get her life back on track after her husband’s untimely demise.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is funny but “very sad,” according to Hugh Grant

As is the case with the previous Bridget Jones movies (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Bridget Jones’s Baby), Grant revealed in an interview on The Graham Norton Show (via IndieWire) that the fourth movie will also be funny. However, he also shared that there are some emotional elements in it. 

“As well as being extremely funny, it’s very, very sad. But absolutely no role for Daniel Cleaver as far as I could see,” said Grant.

The film franchise is based on Helen Fielding’s novel series of the same name. While the Daniel Cleaver character was not featured in the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy book, the creatives behind the film adaptation managed to “cram” him into the fourth movie despite having “absolutely no role” for the character. 

On his character’s return, Grant said: “It’s actually a very good and moving script. And I say this as someone who’s horrid about scripts. This was brilliant. [Fielding] had a sad story. [Bridget] got married to an American screenwriter, she had children, then he died and she raised the children by herself.”

He added, “I felt that what they proposed was fine, but not great. And I felt that he needed a third dimension. He’s in his 60s now, you can’t just have him smoothing his way down King’s Road eyeing up young girls. Something needs to have happened to him in the interim. So we invented a rather good — I invented a rather good — interim story.”

In addition to Grant, Renée Zellweger will also return as the titular character, Emma Thompson as Doctor Rawlings, Jim Broadbent as Colin Jones, Gemma Jones as Pamela Jones, Sarah Solemani as Miranda, Sally Phillips as Sharon, Shirley Henderson as Jude, James Callis as Tom, and Celia Imrie as Una Alconbury. 

They will be joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Isla Fisher, Nico Parker, and more. The film is directed by Michael Morris.