Not such a wonderful life: The grim backstory behind the feelgood Christmas classic

There’s nothing quite like It’s a Wonderful Life. The beloved 1946 Christmas film, in which James Stewart plays a despairing man who is shown what the world would look like if he’d never been born, is, to many of us, as treasured and essential a part of the festive period as Santa Claus himself.

Yet like so many of the best Christmas stories – including this film’s key antecedent, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol – It’s a Wonderful Lifeis more than just mistletoe and good cheer. In fact, it’s made richer and more moving by its inherent darkness. Its reputation among sceptics for being rose-tinted schmaltz belies the fact that this a film about a man pushed to the brink of suicide.