It’s A Wonderful Life in Birgham

The village of Birgham has ‘twinned’ with ‘Bedford Falls, USA the setting of the classic Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life as part of the community’s celebrations.

Villagers pictured at the official unveiling of the twinning signs were honoured with an angelic ‘pictorial’ appearance by Clarence Odbody, plus Santa made his second appearance in Birgham that week, following the children’s Christmas party, to help nail the signs up.

Following the ceremony Santa said: “It really is a wonderful life in Birgham and now it’ll be a wonderful Christmas too!”

What are the villagers of Birgham so excited about? If you’re not familiar with the iconic 1940’s film that is now a firm Christmas favourite, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is a 1946 Christmas fantasy drama starring James Stewart as George Bailey. It is set in the fictional American town of Bedford Falls. The film is very strongly linked to our area because James Stewart’s character’s guardian angel Clarence is played by Henry Travers who moved to Tweedmouth when he was two in 1876, and grew up there before heading to Hollywood.