Mr Bates vs Post Office: The Impact: Drama that gave victims justice
Twenty years from now, people will still be talking about Mr Bates vs The Post Office as one of the most important television dramas ever made.
When the four-part series launched, starring Toby Jones as the crusader Alan Bates, ITV could have had no idea how significant the show would be.
They must have known the story, written by Gwyneth Hughes, was both politically shocking and emotionally powerful.
But many pieces of television have exposed real-life corruption and depicted its human cost. This one did much more – it changed the course of events.
The one-off documentary Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact followed up those events, revealing not only how the general public rose up to support the campaign but how dozens more former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were emboldened to come forward.
Twenty years from now, people will still be talking about Mr Bates vs The Post Office as one of the most important television dramas ever made
When the four-part series launched, starring Toby Jones as the crusader Alan Bates (pictured), ITV could have had no idea how significant the show would be
Suzanne and Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact
We met more of the Post Office’s victims in this devastating documentary. Tony and Caroline Downey (pictured), who ran the village stores in Hawkshead, Cumbria, went bankrupt because of Horizon
The one-off documentary Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact followed up those events, revealing not only how the general public rose up to support the campaign but how dozens more former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were emboldened to come forward (pictured: Former sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton)
Even now, it’s difficult to grasp how many decent, honest, hard-working people had their lives ruined by the Post Office and its bug-ridden Horizon accountancy software (pictured: Karl Flinders, chief reporter at Computer Weekly, where he helped to expose the Post Office scandal)
Even now, it’s difficult to grasp how many decent, honest, hard-working people had their lives ruined by the Post Office and its bug-ridden Horizon accountancy software.
More than 900 were accused of stealing sums that often amounted to tens of thousands of pounds – and 236 received prison sentences.
Part of the drama’s success stemmed from the way supporting actors such as Monica Dolan and Will Mellor portrayed real-life casualties. We felt we knew their characters personally.
We met more of the Post Office’s victims in this devastating documentary. Tony and Caroline Downey, who ran the village stores in Hawkshead, Cumbria, went bankrupt because of Horizon.
After losing their home, they left the country to live in Europe, unable to face their former friends and neighbours. Tony suffered a breakdown so serious that for 20 years he has struggled to work.
Their daughter Katie was affected just as badly by the stress, becoming mute for two years.
In Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, sub-postmaster Lee Williamson was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence after being falsely accused of stealing £16,000. He too suffered a breakdown and described movingly how close he came to suicide.
More than 900 were accused of stealing sums that often amounted to tens of thousands of pounds – and 236 received prison sentences (pictured: Darius and Deirdre Connolly who had a post office at Killeter)
In Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, sub-postmaster Lee Williamson was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence after being falsely accused of stealing £16,000. He too suffered a breakdown and described movingly how close he came to suicide
Noel and Sian Thomas are pictured above in the documentary Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact. Noel from Anglesey was falsely imprisoned for theft after the Post Office’s computer system malfunctioned
Lord Arbuthnot was also part of the documentary Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact
Until the ITV drama aired, he thought he would never clear his name: ‘I was afraid to talk about it in public, because you’re always aware of the stigma.’
The scandal of it is bottomless. Investigators are now looking at the Post Office’s 1990s software, a system called Capture that predated Horizon.
It too appears to have conjured up huge financial discrepancies and losses where none really existed.
The former sub-postmaster in Heap Bridge near Manchester, Steve Marston, was given a 12-month suspended sentence for shortfalls of £79,000.
‘I used to be a treasurer of the local social club,’ he said, ‘treasurer of the local football team. I was trusted. I was well respected. Now we never go anywhere. We just exist day by day. It’s been a living hell.’
Thanks to television, he has some hope of getting justice.
