What would a British “It’s A Wonderful Life” have looked like?

In the run-up to this Christmas, like most years, I watched It’s A Wonderful Life. And this year, like most years, I then annoyed my friends by noting at the end that under any reasonable system of financial regulation, George Bailey was still going to jail. The moral here is “don’t watch Christmas films with an economist,” you’re setting yourself up for a lecture on either the proper workings…