The Sex and the City girls shimmied into our lives almost a decade ago now – and then back out again, off into the Manhattan sunset, four long years back. But perhaps it was just a matter of time before they teetered back on skyscraper-high Manolos.

Throughout its six-season run, audiences couldn’t get enough of a show that had somehow fused the elements of female friendship, fashion, (post) feminism and, well, another F-word to create a TV phenomenon. But SATC didn’t just tap into the Zeitgeist, it altered it. Women watching everywhere from Birmingham to Brisbane learnt life lessons from the girls, whether that was the importance of the right bag or the bittersweet pleasures of commiserating with each other about a bad one-night stand over a perfect Cosmopolitan.

“None of us had any idea how big or successful or life-changing the show was going to be,” recalls Sarah Jessica Parker, aka Carrie, journalist and narrator of the saga of New York life.

Yet such was the void created by its absence that, almost as soon as the last credits had rolled, there were rumours of a reunion and behind-the-scenes talks to bring it back in movie form.

“But, you know, the script and the money had to be right,” says Kim Cattrall, whose firm negotiating stance would doubtless have delighted Samantha, the man-eating publicist she played in the 94 episodes of the HBO-produced show. Because, even if none of the Prada-clad SATC characters resembled old-school feminists, all were fully paid-up members of the 21st-century sisterhood.

“Historically, drama has always been about pitting women against women and letting them scratch one another’s eyes out,” says Cattrall. “But Sex and the City was about women helping each other through difficult relationships, being constant to each other, being family. The idea that you are no one until you’re with someone is outmoded; it’s better to lean on your friends and not be in a relationship than be with a man out of desperation. That was at its core.”

That the drama preferred the shoebox to the soapbox was part of its charm. That its spokeswomen would rather rattle their Chanel handbags than their sabres, ditto. Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, the world-weary lawyer, insists that the show was empowering, but admits that some critics may have missed the point. “The hardline feminists took issue over how much we dressed up and how much our lives revolved around trying to entice men. But it was a feminist show! I remember Miranda and Charlotte had an argument one time: Charlotte wanted to quit her job and stay at home and Miranda thought that was really stupid. But Charlotte said, ‘You know, the feminist movement is all about choices.’ And that was what our show was about. Because our characters were so different, we could take them on a variety of different paths in life.”

The show, which was created by Darren Star and loosely based on Candace Bushnell’s book of the same name, managed to be both groundbreakingly explicit in the way that it portrayed women’s attitudes to sex and, crucially, funny with it. And before they undressed on screen, each of the four women – most notably Parker – was decked out in a savvy wardrobe of clothes, which were chosen by New York style maven Patricia Field and became as much a trademark of the series as the gags about sex toys and fake nipples.

Sex and the City: The Movie takes up their story four years on and the question is, will Carrie marry Mr Big? And will its audience still care? Transferring a series to the silver screen is notoriously difficult and Parker, who also produced the film, knows this. “We all thought, ‘Can we still run down the street in heels?’” she explains. “At some point in the movie, each of us has on a pair of reading glasses. That’s what happens – we’re older. But we still value our friendship – we’ve invested more time in it. Things take an unexpected turn, but to go back and tell a story of good times and whimsy didn’t feel appropriate.”

Look away now if you don’t want a few clues as to the story that is told. Carrie is set to wed Mr Big (Chris Noth) but the path down the aisle isn’t without hurdles, Samantha is building a new life in Los Angeles after breast cancer, Miranda discovers that her husband is unfaithful and Charlotte finally gets pregnant. Does that sound like a soap opera? Of course it does. But Sex and the City always was that – a cutting-edge soap opera that spawned a host of imitators and defined a time. Small wonder the film’s producers want to repeat that particular trick.

Sex and the City: the Movie opens nationwide on May 28

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