When Harry met Bridget: Men see themselves as Billy Crystal’s classic rom-com cynic while women liken their lives to lovelorn diarist
A new study reveals that British men compare themselves to the love-skeptic Harry Burns, while women compare themselves to the lovelorn Bridget Jones.
Two characters from classic sentimental films have come out on top in a poll of UK film fans conducted for Freeview channel Great Romance.
The results were announced as the original Bridget Jones’s Diary returned to UK cinemas to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the iconic romantic comedy.
British men felt that a long list of protagonists’ attitudes towards love were similar to relationship skeptic Harry Burns, played by Billy Crystal in the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally.
Burns famously rejects the idea that men and women can truly be friends, but he eventually marries Sally (played by Meg Ryan), with whom he had been arguing for 12 years.
A sixth (15 per cent) of men in the UK choose Harry Burns, while one in 10 see themselves as William Thacker, the bumbling Englishman played by Hugh Grant in the 1999 film Notting Hill.
Rounding out the top three, 7 percent of British men see themselves as Marc Darcy, the rich, handsome human rights lawyer played by Colin Firth in the iconic 2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary.
When it comes to romantic comedy characters, British men mostly identify with Billy Crystal’s character Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally.
Meanwhile, women identify with Bridget Jones (played by Renée Zellweger in the successful films).
Whether their partners agree is perhaps a study in itself.
Meanwhile, more than a quarter (27 per cent) of British women liken themselves to Renée Zellweger’s desperately single Bridget Jones in the eponymous epic that spanned four films from 2001 to 2025.
Against stubborn grouch Harry Burns, Sally Albright, played by Meg Ryan in the same 1989 Rob Reiner classic, was the second most popular choice among British women (7 percent).
Joint third place, sharing just 4 percent of the votes, was taken by Martine McCutcheon’s Natalie from Love Actually, Meg Ryan’s Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail, and Meryl Streep’s Donna Sheridan from Mama Mia.
When it comes to films that best represent Brits’ love lives, 2016 hit How to be Single took the top spot, voted by one in ten adults (9%).
Romantic movies are one of the most popular movie choices for the British; According to the same nationwide survey, the average adult watches four movies a month and 52 movies a year.
Great Romance commissioned the research as part of its commitment to show the beloved, nostalgic romance films available on Freeview channel 52.
The romance-focused channel shows romantic movies like Love, Romance and Chocolate, Love by Chance and One Perfect Match all day, every day.
Great Marketing Director Kate Gartland said: ‘The top picks show British men and women are very different when it comes to romance, but it’s reassuring to remember that both Harry and Bridget ended up getting their happily ever after.’
