U.K. Drama Series That Changed the Real World Coming to PBS Masterpiece
Television really does have the power to cause a cultural and political shift—and no recent show has proven this more powerfully than Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Based on a true story, this semi-dramatized look at the lives of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal forced the British government to announce a new law a mere week after it first aired. Now, it’s coming to PBS Masterpiece.
Beginning in 1999, several hundred Post Office branch managers in the U.K. were wrongly accused of false accounting and theft. More than 700 were prosecuted, but in the wake of these allegations, new information came to light. The monetary loss was not caused by malicious intent or simple human error. Instead, the Post Office’s new accounting software, Horizon, was found to be faulty. The software made it look as though money was missing from these Post Office branches, and the managers were subsequently accused of stealing it—some were accused of stealing tens of thousands of pounds.
When the accused denied any wrongdoing and tried to explain that the software was at fault, many were fired from their jobs, forced to file for bankruptcy while trying to pay back the missing money, and some even went to jail. In the aftermath, many suffered from stress-related illnesses, and lost their homes and their livelihoods—some were even driven to self-harm. The Post Office’s denial of the events caused untold suffering, and the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission) has stated that the Post Office Horizon scandal is “the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history.”
Alan Bates, portrayed in the series by a quietly heroic Toby Jones, was one of the victims falsely accused of stealing from the Post Office. Though Bates was never convicted himself, he led a group of former Post Office workers in the fight to clear their names for over 20 years. While much of their campaign has been successful—many have been able to have their criminal convictions overturned—there is still work to be done, and ITV’s 4-episode miniseries has paved the way for genuine systemic change.
Change is on the horizon
Mr Bates vs The Post Office quickly became the most-watched British television drama of 2024 and ITV’s biggest launch in well over a decade, averaging out at 13.1 million viewers in January alone. Since then, a petition was launched to force the former CEO of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, who was in charge at the time of the crisis, to hand back her CBE (awarded by the British monarchy for having a prominent or leading role regionally or nationally). Over a million people signed the petition, and Vennells handed it back on January 9, 2024. Honestly, we have to applaud Lia Williams for portraying Vennells so convincingly in the show.
That’s not the only change that was brought about, however. That same week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to introduce a new law that would “swiftly exonerate and compensate victims.” During a parliamentary session in the House of Commons, Sunak promised that the 555 Post Masters who took their case to the High Court in 2019 would be awarded £75,000 upfront, with a further £600,000 to be made available once they are exonerated depending on their circumstances. (It should be noted, however, that it was not clear how their convictions would be so swiftly overturned). At the time, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said that the new legislation would be introduced in the coming weeks, with the compensation expected to be paid out by the end of the year.
Gwyneth Hughes, the show’s lead writer, spent three years researching and developing the series. In an interview with The Guardian, she expressed her gratitude for the overwhelming response but acknowledged that, in the end, the show is about bringing the scandal to light and giving the victims a voice. “I’m thrilled about it on every level, but it’s been a massive team effort, a team that includes hundreds of postmasters.” She spoke to and worked with many of the accused Post Masters, including the real-life Alan Bates, as she tried to bring the story to life.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office is a sympathetic, frustrating, and engaging watch. It is impossible not to feel for the victims of this scandal, and it’s hard to fathom just how long they’ve been carrying this burden around.
By focusing on the stories of eight Post Masters in particular, the show could zero in on the pain and suffering that the scandal caused, but at no point does it feel like the scale of the scandal has been forgotten. It’s a looming thing, and the series does a great job of balancing despair, hope, anger, and kindness. It is a tremendous piece of television, but above all, it’s an important one.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office will premiere on PBS Masterpiece on April 7, 2024.
(featured image: ITV)
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