Mr Bates vs the Post Office: New drama reveals the real story of the Post Office scandal?

Between 2000 and 2015, one of the country’s biggest and most shocking miscarriages of justice took place, resulting in hundreds of innocent people being accused of crimes they did not commit. Some were fined or jailed, they lost their livelihoods, and many were left in financial ruin by their attempts to clear their name. Others died before having a chance of doing so.

What are we talking about? The Post Office scandal, of course. Despite warnings that its software was flawed, the once respected national institution insisted on rolling out its new and hugely expensive accounting system, named Horizon, which is when the trouble began.

Suddenly discrepancies began showing up, with subpostmasters and mistresses across the country being told they were the only ones having problems.

However, some of those impacted weren’t willing to go quietly. So, in 2009, a group of rightfully aggrieved workers banded together to form the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance, led by Alan Bates from north Wales. Earlier this year, he won a Pride of Britain award for his 20-year campaign to gain justice for those, like him, who were falsely accused of wrongdoing.

His nightmare began when he spotted a shortage of £6,000 on his books.

“I managed to track that down after a huge amount of effort through a whole batch of duplicated transactions,” he recalls. “Once I’d seen that I thought, this system is not robust like they were claiming it was.”

The Post Office still insisted money was missing, and in 2003, Alan and his partner, Suzanne Sercombe, had their contract terminated. Others fared worse than they did, which made him more determined to expose the truth: “When it all began, I didn’t intend to take a leading role, but it naturally happened over time and when things needed to be done, I just got on with them.”

Now the story has been turned into a four-part drama, written by acclaimed screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes.

“I’ve been talking for a while now to some of the people whose lives were turned upside down by this appalling business,” she revealed when the project was announced way back in April 2021. “I find it just astonishing, and deeply troubling, that this could have happened in my country, and I confess it’s shaken my confidence in British justice.

“The subpostmasters at the heart of the fightback are such a lively, interesting and indomitable bunch. They never gave up, and I’m honoured to be telling their stories.”

Toby Jones heads the cast as Mr Bates. He says: “I’m proud to be a part of this shocking, unsettling but ultimately inspirational drama.”

Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alex Jennings, Ian Hart, Will Mellor, Amit Shah and Katherine Kelly are also among the all-star cast.

“We are so grateful to the extraordinary cast that have come together for this show,” comments ITV’s commissioning editor, Helen Perry. “Their talent will help shine a spotlight on one of the most important and unbelievable stories of injustice in recent British history.”

The drama is being broadcast on consecutive nights, and Thursday’s concluding episode will be followed at 10.45pm by the documentary Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story, which also should not be missed.