All it takes is one sequel to ruin an entire series of movies – or books, for that matter – and this was the foremost worry in my mind on arriving to see the latest instalment of the Bridget Jones franchise: would Bridget Jones’s Baby ruin the previous hilarity of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason?

Yet my qualms and apprehensions were entirely unnecessary! Despite 12 years passing since the last film – with the first two being released only three years apart – Bridget Jones’s Baby not only managed to retain the fun and laughter of previous Bridget Jones films but also embedded elements relevant to contemporary society. In more updated situations – music festivals, TV news reports, and current celebrities, including a feature from Ed Sheeran(!) – Bridget retains her loveable clumsiness and fatal attraction for awkwardness with her unplanned, mystery-father pregnancy. The much-loved ‘Bridget moments’ of ‘how to quit your job in style’, ‘how to embarrass and be embarrassed by your mother’ or ‘how to misunderstand Mark Darcy’ are incorporated and entangled in the new plot. The new film also explores the difficulties of being a single parent, and reaches the ultimate conclusion that it really does “take two men” to handle a woman as large – in her pregnant state as well as in her fun personality – as Bridget Jones!

I was amazed at how well Renée Zellweger managed to recapture Bridget despite the gap between this and the former movies. Despite her age, and having a “tin of soup in my cupboard older than…”, Bridget is no longer a ‘middle-aged spinster’ but a single, career-focused woman with the potential to be a ‘cougar’ who is, as she puts it, “ready to roll with the ironic bearded hipsters”. She has a passion for life that lights up the screen and leaves you with a positively feel-good emotion: “Hashtag let’s do this!”

Although my friend missed the presence of the charming, bad-boy-lover Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), additions to the cast certainly fuelled and added to the sense of fun. New man around town Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) seamlessly steps into the shoes of ‘dead’ Daniel Cleaver and Bridget censors herself: “Cannot fall in love with shiny, new American.” The addition of a new female best friend, Miranda (Sarah Solemani), to help Bridget get into even more trouble than usual was definitely a wise move. Not only does Miranda’s character help to explain the development of the more career-focused Bridget, she also creates comedy in the workplace. Her witty comments and timed overlaps in dual conversations – one with Bridget via microphone and the other in a live presentation on TV – were especially amusing. Yet a personal favourite moment has to be Bridget’s failure to recognise Ed Sheeran, mistaking his familiarity for “the guy in Starbucks” and asking him to take a photo of her and her friend, not with him.

Bridget Jones’s Baby is a film packed with laugh-out-loud moments. Star-studded and full of comedy, it definitely exceeds expectations and fulfils the criteria for a hilarious night out at the cinema.