In the book ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’, co-written by Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding, Darcy dies in a tragic accident.

The trailer for the film of the same name explains that he only exists in Jones’s memories as she is now “a widow with two wonderful children.”

Hugh Grant will also be reprising his role as Daniel Cleaver.

Grant told The Graham Norton Show that the film has a “good and movie script. It is extremely funny but very sad”.

“There was no obvious role for me, but I was crammed in.”

“So we didn’t have a 60-year-old Daniel Cleaver wandering around looking at young girls, I made up a good interim story for him.”

The character of Bridget Jones first appeared in a column for The Independent after Fielding was asked if she would write a column about single life in London.

“I said no because (ironically enough) I thought it would be embarrassing and exposing,” Fielding later recalled.

“Then Charlie Leadbeater – a senior editor – suggested I write as an imaginary character, and I thought, ‘Yessss!’”