Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist who created Bridget Jones, the iconic comic heroine from her newspaper columns and books.
On the island
Eight records
one of the earnest introspective records that I was very keen on
It Must Be LoveFavourite
reminds me of that lovely time in my 20s when I lived in Bristol
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (first movement)
quite dark and complicated… one of the most difficult piano pieces there is to play
reminds me of that particular night when we got stuck on the island
the soundtrack to so many brilliant nights with my girlfriends
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:00What are your feelings about Bridget Jones today?
Very grateful to Bridget for what she's done for my life, and I feel very pleased that … young girls are still enjoying the book … I wrote it so unself-consciously that I wasn't thinking about how it would be received … that freed me up to be very honest about what it is like being a human being …
Presenter asks
3:01Why do you think it wouldn't have been possible [to write Bridget Jones] now?
I took my kids to see a screening of the movie … I was staggered. You couldn't write that now. The level of sexism that Bridget was dealing with, the hand on the bum in so many of the scenes … it was just part and parcel of her life …
Presenter asks
9:59Did [going to Oxford] seem like an achievable goal?
When they were asking everyone to apply, they didn't ask me at school because I'd sort of let things slide a bit. So then I decided I was really going to work, so I spent the whole summer working.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Jane Austen
I think I'll go with Pride and Prejudice because it is the perfect novel.
The luxury
Magic tree (fruit tree with chocolate oranges and chilled white burgundy wine sap)
I'm going to have a magic tree which is a fruit tree but also has chocolate orange and the sap is chilled white burgundy wine.
You weren't happy at first [at Oxford]. Why not?
I wasn't unhappy. I was proud to be there, but I found it quite intense … dinner was at lunch time … there was a bit of adjustment like that.
Presenter asks
14:04What impact did [making films for Comic Relief] have on you?
I became more interested in issues … I managed to get Thames TV to say I could make this story [about locusts]. But when I got there, the locusts had all flown off to Chad … we went down instead to do the South Sudan war … the crew set off without me to go and interview John Garang … they'd driven over a landmine and a soldier had been killed and the producer had been killed … after that I really felt I got a little bit close to the danger and I should rein it in a bit.
Presenter asks
23:12What did you make of the feminist critiques of [Bridget Jones]?
I always hope to stand like a great tree in the face of criticism, but of course it always gets to me because I'm a human being … I did deliberately put the line in … I think what's great now is that feminism has sort of lost its capital F … Bridget does not straightforwardly just want a man.
“What happened with Bridget really was that I wrote it so unself-consciously that I wasn't thinking about how it would be received. And therefore, that freed me up to be very honest about what it is like being a human being, really.”
“It's a bit of a red herring to get hung up about Bridget. And I think the way that Bridget operates is the way that your friends operate. When you see your friends at the end of the day for a glass of wine, you do not go in and say, Oh, I've been such a marvellous feminist. You go in and say, Oh, God, you'll never believe what happened to me today.”
“I think I'm quite good at surviving and finding the joy and the fun as well as feeling the things that you feel.”
“I think [during the epidemic] it's been very strange to live through, and I think we'll be much more appreciative of the basics, sounds like, than the clichés my dad would laugh at.”