Sex and the City recap – what happened in season 6?

As so much time has passed since the HBO series ended, you're probably in need of a catch-up before the Sex and the City crew are back on Thursday – and if you don't fancy putting in some serious hours of TV binging, then we've got you covered.

We've recapped the sixth and final season of Sex and the City as well as the two spin-off films so you're all clued up ahead of the And Just Like That premiere – so without further ado, get reading!

What happened in Sex and the City season 6?

The final season of Sex and the City kicks off with Carrie dating writer Jack Berger (Ron Livingston), while Miranda has discovered that she's in love with Steve (David Eigenberg), the father of her son Brody, however he currently has a girlfriend. As for Charlotte, she's dating Harry (Evan Handler), however she's struggling with his assertions that he can only marry a Jewish woman, and Samantha is up to her classic womanising ways when she meets an attractive waiter named Jerry Jerrod (Jason Lewis).

Over the course of the series, we watch as Carrie and Berger's relationship declines after she realises he's clearly not over his ex-girlfriend and he feels threatened by Carrie's success as a writer. Charlotte decides to convert to the Jewish faith in a bid to win around Harry and when women at her synagogue try to set her up with their single sons, Charlotte and Harry realise that they are meant to be together and become engaged. Samantha continues dating Jerry and takes over the PR for his struggling play, changing his name to Smith and reviving his career by getting him a billboard spot in Times Square.

Still in love with Steve, Miranda helps him bake cupcakes for his new girlfriend whilst becoming more at ease with being a mother, while Berger breaks up with Carrie via Post-It Note (ouch). Charlotte plans a small wedding for her and Harry, but after he accidentally sees her in her dress before the wedding, she begins to fear that their wedding is cursed.

When an attractive doctor named Robert moves into Miranda's building, she develops a crush on him and they eventually become an item. However, as their relationship escalates, she struggles to tell him she loves him as she's still harbouring feelings for Steve. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Harry try for a baby and she discovers she's pregnant, but is heartbroken when she miscarries shortly afterwards, while Carrie worries about Big when she learns he needs heart surgery, before meeting Russian artist Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) at a gallery.

Unsurprisingly, Miranda breaks things off with Robert and professes her love for Steve, with the two becoming an item once again. They decide to have a non-traditional wedding and head on a four-day honeymoon to upstate New York. Carrie continues to date Aleksandr, but finds his big romantic gestures slightly off-putting, while Samantha learns that she has breast cancer when looking into augmentation surgery.

She struggles with the chemotherapy side effects but is supported by Smith, who has become a famous actor thanks to Samantha's PR efforts. Miranda and Steve buy a house in Brooklyn, Charlotte and Harry get a dog named Elizabeth Taylor and begin looking into adoption, and Carrie learns that Aleksandr is moving to Paris to open a new exhibit and decides to move with him.

She moves to the French capital but finds that it does not live up to her expectations, while Big asks Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda for advice and they encourage him to go to Paris and tell Carrie he loves her. In Paris, Carrie finds herself becoming lonely and when Aleksandr accidentally slaps her, she runs into Big, who tells her she's the one.

What happened in the Sex and the City movies?

Sex and the City: The Movie

Of course, after the HBO show ended, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda all returned for a film four years later, with Charlotte and Harry now parents to an adopted baby girl Lily, Miranda and Steve raising Brady together, Samantha relocating to LA to be closer to Smith and Carrie planning to move in with Big.

Big proposes to Carrie and Charlotte hires her friend Anthony Marantino (Mario Cantone) to plan the wedding. While she initially wants it to be a small affair, it soon grows into a huge event, with Carrie set on wearing a Vivienne Westwood gown and Big feeling uneasy about the size of the wedding.

Steve reveals to Miranda that he cheated on her and she decides to break up with him, while at the rehearsal dinner, she tells Big in anger that marriage ruined everything for her and Steve. On the wedding day, a panicked Big decides not to go through with it but gets over his jitters and finds Carrie, who has fled the wedding. She hits him with her bouquet of flowers in the middle of the street and goes on the honeymoon to Mexico with the girls.

When back in New York, Carrie hires an assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson), who helps set up her website, while Charlotte discovers she is pregnant. Carrie and Miranda have dinner together on Valentine's Day, with Carrie saying that she realised she'd become so absorbed by the wedding that it wasn't about her and Big in the end. Miranda tells her what she said to Big at the rehearsal dinner and a furious Carrie storms out. Miranda begs for her forgiveness a few days later and Carrie agrees on the condition that Miranda does the same for Steve.

Steve and Miranda start attending couples counselling and eventually get back together, while Samantha starts to find life in Los Angeles lonely with Smith shooting films around the clock. She decides to move back to New York and splits up with Smith.

A heavily-pregnant Charlotte bumps into Big a few months later but their conversation causes her water to break. He takes her to the hospital and Charlotte gives birth to baby Rose, but leaves before Carrie arrives. Harry tells Carrie that Big would like to call her and that he'd written to her a lot but hadn't received a reply. She discovers that Big sent her many declarations of love and apologies over email, but Louise had hidden them in a secret folder after Carrie told her to block all correspondence from Big.

She returns to the penthouse she was meant to move into with Big to collect a pair of Manolo Blahnik she'd left there and finds Big. They talk about how happy they'd been before they started talking about marriage, and Big proposes to her again – but this time, they marry in New York City Hall, just the two of them.

Sex and the City 2

The second Sex and the City film opens with the girls attending the wedding of Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony, which is officiated by Liza Minelli. Samantha is the only one of the group who is still single, but finds that entering the menopause has affected her libido.

Miranda is happy with Steve and Brody but decides to leave her law firm after falling out with the misogynistic new managing partners, while Charlotte is struggling to look after both of her children but worries that Harry has a thing for their nanny Erin (Alice Eve). Carrie and Big have settled into married life, however Carrie feels frustrated by Big's reluctance to go out to dinners and parties with her.

The couple's anniversary comes around, with Carrie gifting Big an engraved Rolex watch, however he reveals his gift is a new TV in their bedroom to her dismay. While he justifies the purchase by saying that they loved watching old movies together in bed at the hotel after Anthony and Stanford's wedding, Big soon starts to watch TV a lot more often while Carrie feels neglected. In retaliation, she decides to spend two days at her old flat to write, after which Big returns to his romantic self and even suggests that they take two days off every week to do their own thing. While Carrie doesn't shoot down the idea, she feels slightly hurt.

When asked to work on a PR campaign for an Arab sheikh's business, Samantha gets to fly her and the girls to Abu Dhabi on an all-expenses-paid holiday. When at a local market, Carrie bumps into her ex-fiancé Aidan and they have dinner together. However, while both are married, they kiss in a moment of passion and Carrie runs off to her hotel room. Miranda and Charlotte are drinking and discussing motherhood when Carrie returns and tells them. While Samantha tells Carrie not to tell Big just yet, she rings him anyway and confesses, but Big is silent and hangs up.

Meanwhile, Samantha is arrested after heading on a date with a Danish architect and kissing him on a beach. While she's released after the sheikh intervenes, he cancels the PR meeting and refuses to pay for the group's stay. They quickly pack their bags and head to the airport, however Carrie realises that she'd left her passport at the market. They manage to pick it up and make it to the airport in time to return home.

When back in New York, Carrie finds that Big has removed the bedroom TV and has left. At the end of the day, he returns and gives her a black diamond ring to remind her that she is married.

And Just Like That arrives on Sky Comedy and NOW on Thursday 9th December. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.