Doing It For George: It’s a big bad world meets It’s A Wonderful Life

It’s A Wonderful Life is one of the world’s best loved movies. It stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a small town good guy who has dreams of travelling the world but never leaves the small town of Bedford Falls. Robert David grew up loving the film so much that when he was fired from his ad agency copywriting job he decided to do what George never got the chance to - and go see the world. A mature, experienced and successful (well, up to that point anyway) man of the world, what could possibly go wrong. Doing It For George is the story of everything that did. With the mishaps piling up on top of the near misses, George Bailey is never far from the author’s thoughts as he pinballs from one disaster to another. He takes overnight trains across India, survives a pot luck tuk-tuk ride across Bangkok in the dead of night, and paddles down the might Mississippi in a canoe. In LA he’s picked up by a loony-tune in a Tex-Mex karaoke bar, and in Times Square he’s mugged by a drop dead gorgeous hooker in an encounter torn straight out of the pages of Damon Runyon. Having also ticked off Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia on his travels, finally he pitches up at journeys end, the town in upper New York State that inspired the film and which calls itself The Real Bedford Falls. Here he goes in search of the soul of the movie and meets Karolyn Grimes, the actress who was six years old when she played George’s youngest daughter Zuzu in the film. Doing It For George is a riotous traveller’s tale that also pays homage to a Hollywood classic. It’s also probably the longest advertisement for the benefits of travel insurance ever written.