Bridget Jones 4: Renee Zellweger joined by Leo Woodall for Mad About The Boy

As Bridget Jones herself said "everyone knows diaries are just full of crap", but the ones dictating her inner monologues also make wonderful films.

So wonderful, in fact, that a fourth is about to begin production.

Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson are set to reprise their roles in the new film Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

It is set for US release on Valentine's Day 2025, but no date has been announced for the UK.

The film takes its title from the latest Bridget Jones novel, which was published in 2013.

Readers rejoin Bridget in her 50s, a mother to two children and widowed following the death of Mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth in the earlier films).

The production studio has not commented on how closely the new film will follow the storyline of its paperback namesake, but it has been revealed author Helen Fielding has written the script.

It has also been confirmed that two-time Oscar winner Zellweger will reprise her role as the beloved, hapless Bridget Jones, and Grant, who did not appear in the third film, will return as dashing rapscallion Daniel Cleaver.

Thompson, who debuted her character of Bridget's despairing obstetrician in Bridget Jones's Baby, is also set for a return.

New faces on the cast list include Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) and Leo Woodall (One Day), who is rumoured to play Bridget's younger love interest as she faces dating anew.

British author Helen Fielding previously said she had decided to write Mark Darcy out of the series because she didn't want Bridget to become "a smug married", a fate deemed utterly lamentable by earlier musings of Jones.

When Mad about the Boy was published, Fielding told BBC News she had written it in secret to be free of expectations and pressure and "so that I could write it like the first one".