''Mr Bates vs The Post Office'' is a four-part British television drama series for

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

, written by

Gwyneth Hughes Gwyneth Hughes is a British documentary director and screenwriter who works mainly in television. Early life She is a former newspaper journalist from the north of England. Career Her credits include the crime drama '' Five Days'', ''Cherished' ...

, directed by James Strong and starring an ensemble cast led by Toby Jones. The series is a dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal, a miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted privately and

publicly In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlic ...

for theft, false accounting or

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It was broadcast on four consecutive days from 1 January 2024. The series takes its name from the court case instigated by the former subpostmaster

Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...

and others.

Synopsis

A faulty IT system called Horizon creates apparent cash shortfalls that cause Post Office Limited to pursue prosecutions for fraud, theft and false accounting against a number of subpostmasters across the UK. In 2009, a group of these, led by

forms the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. The prosecutions and convictions are later ruled a miscarriage of justice at the conclusion of the '' Bates v Post Office'' judicial case of 2019.

Cast

* Toby Jones as

* Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton *

Julie Hesmondhalgh Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh (born 25 February 1970) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' between 1998 and 2014. For this role, she won Best Serial Drama Perfor ...

as Suzanne Sercombe * Alex Jennings as James Arbuthnot * Ian Hart as Bob Rutherford * Lia Williams as

Paula Vennells Paula Anne Vennells, (born 1959), is a British businesswoman and Anglican priest. She was chief executive officer of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019. Under her leadership, the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of subpostmasters for fraud, de ...

* Will Mellor as Lee Castleton * Amy Nuttall as Lisa Castleton * Krupa Pattani as Saman Kaur *

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

as Jas Singh * Colin Tierney as Martin Griffiths * Clare Calbraith as Gina Griffiths * Shaun Dooley as Michael Rudkin * Lesley Nicol as Pam Stubbs * John Hollingworth as James Hartley * Adam James as Patrick Green QC * Katherine Kelly as Angela van Den Bogerd * Isobel Middleton as Kay Linnell * Pip Torrens as Lord Justice Fraser * Nadhim Zahawi as himself * James Naughtie as himself

Episodes

Production

Written by

and directed by James Strong, the series was produced by Chris Clough for Little Gem and ITV Studios. Filming began in May 2023 and took place in

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craigsi ...

, Conwy, and Tatsfield, Surrey. Former member of the Business Select Committee Nadhim Zahawi had a small role, playing himself.

Broadcast

The series was shown on

from 1 to 4 January 2024, and was released in full on ITVX on the same date. Immediately after the final episode, ITV broadcast a documentary ''Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story''. In the United States, it will premiere on PBS's drama anthology ''

Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' in April 2024.

Reception

The series was well received by critics and awarded four out of five by reviewers in '' The Times'', '' The Daily Telegraph'' and '' The Guardian''. Martin Robinson, writing in the '' Evening Standard'', said: "The Kafka-esque situation is thoroughly humanised by the performances". The series won the Jury Prize at the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. The series won the Judges Prize at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March 2024.

Impact

The series was credited for igniting public interest in the scandal and led to demands for the former Post Office CEO

to have her CBE withdrawn; a petition that accrued more than 1.2 million signatures. Vennells issued a statement on 9 January 2024 that she would "return erCBE with immediate effect". However, this had no formal and immediate effect, as only the monarch can revoke or annul honours. Vennells’s appointment as CBE was formally revoked by

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

on 23 February for "bringing the honours system into disrepute". Such was the impact of the drama that the scandal became a major news story, and on the following day Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...

announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted subpostmasters and said there would be a "new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected". However, the new legislation will aim to ensure that any subpostmaster who is guilty of criminal wrongdoing is still subject to prosecution. Post Office Minister

Kevin Hollinrake Kevin Paul Hollinrake (born 28 September 1963) is a British Conservative politician and businessman. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Thirsk and Malton since May 2015 and has been serving as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State ...

said £1bn had been budgeted for compensation payments. Lead actor Toby Jones has spoken of being "very proud" of the impact the drama had, telling

BBC Radio Stoke BBC Radio Stoke is the BBC's local radio station serving Staffordshire and South Cheshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, Freeview and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekl ...

that "there have been many dramas in the past that have had a political influence, but not quite as urgently and directly as this" and that the drama was "brilliantly dramatised by the writer and the fact that it was being spoken about in Parliament within three weeks is absolutely extraordinary."

References

External links

* *
Little Gem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mr Bates vs. The Post Office 2024 British television series debuts 2024 British television series endings 2020s British crime drama television series 2020s British television miniseries British English-language television shows ITV television dramas Television series by ITV Studios Television series set in the 21st century Television shows filmed in Wales True crime television series