Mr Bates vs The Post Office | |
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Genre | Drama |
Written by | Gwyneth Hughes |
Directed by | James Strong |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producer | Chris Clough |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 1 January – 4 January 2024 |
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a four-part British television drama series for ITV, written by Gwyneth Hughes, 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 for theft, false accounting or fraud due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It was broadcast on four consecutive days from 1 January 2024. [1] [2]
The series takes its name from the court case instigated by the former subpostmaster Alan Bates and others.
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 Alan Bates 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. [3] [4]
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) |
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1 | "Episode 1" | James Strong | Gwyneth Hughes | 1 January 2024 | 9.20 |
2 | "Episode 2" | James Strong | Gwyneth Hughes | 2 January 2024 | 9.48 |
3 | "Episode 3" | James Strong | Gwyneth Hughes | 3 January 2024 | 9.99 |
4 | "Episode 4" | James Strong | Gwyneth Hughes | 4 January 2024 | 10.31 |
Written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by James Strong, the series was produced by Chris Clough for Little Gem and ITV Studios. [7] Filming began in May 2023 [8] and took place in Llandudno, Conwy, and Tatsfield, Surrey. [9] Former member of the Business Select Committee Nadhim Zahawi had a small role, playing himself. [10]
Journalist Nick Wallis, who has written extensively about the scandal, was a consultant on the series. [11]
Although the series had been watched by an estimated 13.5 million people as of late-April 2024, ITV said it had made a loss of around £1 million on the production. Kevin Lygo, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, partially blamed the lack of international appeal in the subject matter for these losses. [12]
The series was shown on ITV1 from 1 to 4 January 2024, and was released in full on ITVX on the same date. [13] In the United States, the series premiered on PBS's drama anthology Masterpiece in April 2024. [14] In Australia, the series premiered in February 2024 on Channel Seven. [15]
Immediately after the final episode, ITV broadcast a documentary Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story. [2]
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". [16] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 16 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Dramatizing a grave injustice with terrific acting and plain-spoken righteousness, Mr Bates vs the Post Office shines much-needed light on a national scandal." [17] On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on seven critics. [18]
The series won the Jury Prize at the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. [19] The series won the Judges Prize at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March 2024. [20]
The series was credited for igniting public interest in the scandal and led to demands for the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells to have her CBE withdrawn; a petition that accrued more than 1.2 million signatures. [21] [22] [23]
Vennells issued a statement on 9 January 2024 that she would "return [her] CBE with immediate effect". [24] However, this had no formal and immediate effect, as only the monarch can revoke or annul honours. [25] [26] Vennells’s appointment as CBE was formally revoked by King Charles III on 23 February for "bringing the honours system into disrepute". [27] [28] [29]
Such was the impact of the drama that the scandal became a major news story, and on the following day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak 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. [30] [31]
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake 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 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." [32]
Post Office Limited, commonly known as the Post Office, is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of around 11,500 post office branches. Most of these branch post offices are run by franchise partners or by independent business people known as subpostmasters; the remaining 1% are directly managed by Post Office Limited.
William Mellor is an English actor, singer and model. He is known for his roles as Jambo Bolton in Hollyoaks, Gaz Wilkinson in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Warren Stamp in EastEnders, DC Spike Tanner in No Offence, Steve Connolly in Broadchurch, Georgie in Barking! and Ollie Curry in White Van Man. He appeared in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as Harvey Gaskell. In 2024, he appeared as sub-postmaster Lee Castleton in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, about the British Post Office scandal.
Toby Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.
Adam Alexander Crozier is a Scottish businessman who was formerly the chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the ITV television network covering most of the United Kingdom.
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Dunelm Group plc, trading as Dunelm, is a British home furnishings retailer operating in the United Kingdom. One of the largest homeware retailers in the UK, the company headquarters are in Syston, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Until 2013 the company traded as Dunelm Mill.
The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) is a membership organisation, which represents subpostmasters in the United Kingdom. Subpostmasters are self-employed business operators, approved by Post Office Ltd to act as their agents in running Post Office branches (outlets). In Jan 2023, the NFSP had 6727 members who operated approximately 9,300 post office branches. Post Office Ltd is contractually obliged to consult the NFSP on behalf of subpostmasters.
Monica Margaret Dolan is an English actress. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult (2011).
Nadhim Zahawi is an Iraqi-born British politician who served in various ministerial positions under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak from 2018 to 2023. He most recently served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio from 25 October 2022 until he was dismissed by Sunak on 29 January 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Stratford-on-Avon from 2010 to 2024.
Gwyneth Hughes is a British documentary director and screenwriter who works mainly in television.
The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved Post Office Limited pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for shortfalls in their accounts, which had in fact been caused by faults in Horizon, accounting software developed and maintained by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover shortfalls caused by Horizon with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts, and bankruptcies took a heavy toll on the victims and their families, leading to stress, illness, family breakdown, and at least four suicides. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.
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Paula Anne Vennells is a British former businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019, years which saw the continuing prosecution of innocent subpostmasters and a very costly and unsuccessful attempt to defend a group action. She is also an Anglican priest.
Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd was a group legal action taken by 555 subpostmasters against Post Office Limited (POL), commonly known as the Post Office. It was heard by Justice Fraser in the High Court between 2017 and 2019. Six judgments were handed down, two of them dealing with substantive matters, while the other four dealt with procedural matters. The Common Issues trial examined the contract between the subpostmasters and the Post Office and found largely in favour of the claimants, while the Horizon Issues trial found that Horizon, the Post Office accounting software, contained bugs, errors and defects that could cause shortfalls in the subpostmasters' accounts. Further scheduled trials were not held, as the claimants and the Post Office settled after the Horizon Issues trial.
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Rishi Sunak's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 25 October 2022 when he accepted an invitation from King Charles III to form a government, succeeding Liz Truss. He is the first British Indian and the first Hindu to hold the office. As prime minister, Sunak is also serving as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union. His premiership was dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the cost of living crisis and the Rwanda asylum plan.
Alan Bates is a former subpostmaster and a leading campaigner for victims of the British Post Office scandal, in which thousands of subpostmasters were accused of dishonesty when faulty Post Office accounting software created shortfalls in their accounts. After the Post Office terminated his contract in 2003 over a false shortfall, he sought out other subpostmasters in the same position and went on to found the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance in 2009. The group took the Post Office to court and, following two favourable judgments in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, accepted a settlement of £57.75 million, which left the 555 claimants with little money after legal fees were paid. Bates has continued to campaign for fair compensation for subpostmasters.
Jo Hamilton is a former subpostmaster and a passionate campaigner for justice for victims of the British Post Office scandal. She ran a village post office in Hampshire from 2001 until 2006, when she was suspended and then wrongly prosecuted for shortfalls caused by the Post Office faulty accounting software, Horizon. She was convicted of false accounting, received a supervision order and had to pay the Post Office £36,000 although it was money she did not owe. Her treatment at the hands of the Post Office had a devastating impact on her health, family and finances. She went on to be a founding member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and one of the 555 litigants in the successful group legal action of Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd. Her criminal conviction was overturned in April 2021.
Channel 7 will be broadcasting the four-part series in two-episode chunks over a fortnight. Catch the first half at 8:30pm on February 14 and the second half at the same time on February 21. The full series will also be available to watch on 7Plus after broadcast.