Northants village records uplifting video to ‘We Are Family’ to show togetherness through lockdown

Residents from a Northamptonshire village have recorded a music video to tell the world that they will get through the lockdown together.

Miranda Richardson, who owns the village pub in Harpole, has seen first-hand the efforts the villagers are putting in to look after each other.

Since the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown, the village has set up a team of volunteers, called Team Harpole.

The Live and Let Live owner said: “The village has been amazing.

“We have a team of volunteers who all look after the variety of streets within the village making sure people are fed and watered, shopping is done, newspapers are bought, that sort of thing.

“We had the medication from the surgery coming to the pub anyway to dispense it around the village. Friends or family come to pick it up or volunteers will deliver it.

“Like many places it has been a real sense of community - that whole family feeling of everybody looking after everybody.”

Miranda wanted to create something that would show that the village is ‘one big family’, especially during these unprecedented times, so she got local families to record themselves singing along to the Sister Sledge hit ‘We Are Family’, before asking her film producer friend to work his magic.

The 46-year-old added: “The video was made to show everyone that we’re all in this together, we’re all working hard together and if all else fails we’ll have each other.

“It picks those up who have been self isolating, those on their own.

“It’s letting people know, especially in a village like Harpole that doesn’t go anywhere, that the whole village is here.

“The virus has changed so many people’s lives overnight and that’s how quickly we had to adjust to a new normal, so we’re just letting people know they are not on their own.”

After Miranda sent the track out a couple of weeks ago, she received 42 clips of families and residents joining in with the sing-along, including two families overseas.

“We had a family that emigrated to Australia in January and we miss them very much and a couple who decided to spend the year in Spain, so we’ve got them in there too,” Miranda continued.

The finished product is an uplifting video that captures the spirit of the village.

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