Daniel Cleaver brought back in Helen Fielding's
new book, Bridget Jones's Baby
 

Alice Vincent | The Telegraph –  October 11, 2016

 

Daniel Cleaver may have been noticeably absent from Bridget Jones's Baby, the third film in the blockbuster rom-com franchise, but he is very much present in Helen Fielding's new book of the same title.

Cleaver, Bridget Jones's former boss and lover, was said to have died between the events of the second and third films. The latter opens with his funeral, after he was presumed dead (the lack of definite confirmation led to speculation that he may return for future sequels) following a plane crash, where Bridget bumps into her ex, Mark Darcy.

The lack of Cleaver on screen was due to the fact that Hugh Grant, who played the character in the first two films, refused to return with the rest of the cast for the third film.

Instead, Patrick Dempsey was drafted in to play dashing American Jack Qwant, and a love triangle emerges between him, Bridget and Mark (Colin Firth). 


H
owever, Fielding clearly wanted to keep the devilish appreciator of big knickers intact for her novel version of the film. In a scene not depicted on screen, Bridget Jones's Baby details how Mark and Bridget's engagement party – and, indeed, engagement – came to an abrupt end after he finds her in the toilet with Cleaver "lifting up [her] skirt". 

Rather than go missing after a plane crash, we learn that Cleaver: "married an Eastern European model/princess and was occasionally to be seen gracing the pages of Hello!, leaning over the parapet of a castle with mountains in the background, looking slightly embarrassed."


H
e and Bridget later bump into each other at a women's literary prize ceremony, at which he is presenting an award. 

The book precedes Fielding's third Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, in which the middle-aged Bridget jostles a relationship with Cleaver after grieving the sudden loss of her husband, Mark, while raising two children.


F
ielding shed light on why she killed off Mark after releasing the book in 2013, saying that she "wanted to write about Bridget’s life as a single mother. 

"Mark Darcy would never have left her – he’s too much of a gentleman, and it is far better that his memory lives on untarnished in the new book than he turns out to be a bit of an f-wit."


H
owever, the bestselling author has never elucidated on Cleaver's death. The Telegraph reported that Grant wouldn't be appearing in the third film in 2014, but Fielding has never spoken about the lack of Cleaver in the film, nor the difference between the narratives of the film and the books. 

Cleaver's re-appearance in Bridget Jones's Baby means several question marks hang over the future of the franchise and its different narratives, especially if a film adaptation of Mad About the Boy is on the cards.