Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the Most Important TV Drama of the Year - But What's Missing?

There are a number of people who the finger is pointed at as a result of the ITV drama.

The legal battle between a number of post office branch managers, known as sub-postmasters in the UK, against the British government-owned Post Office over the last twenty years has been called the greatest miscarriage of justice in Britain - and this is from a country that brought you the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. In a nutshell, the nationwide rollout of the Horizon IT system from Fujitsu in post offices up and down the country saw sub-postmasters made responsible for errors, accidental or deliberate, made by or through the system. Many were prosecuted for fraud or theft, some lost their life savings and were bankrupted, some were incarcerated for years, some took their own life, and through it all, each sub-postmaster was told that they were the only one with complaints. And then, when action was taken, the Post Office withheld information and pulled out of restorative measures they had previously agreed to. The situation had been covered extensively by BBC news programmes, Private Eye magazine and, in the early days, Computer Weekly. But things changed this week when ITV1 ran a drama covering the situation starring Toby Jones as the former sub-postmaster Alan Bates and pensioner activist, in Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It was, by all accounts, a barnstorming success critically and commercially. told simply, it was incredibly emotionally effective. Despite being familiar with this story, I found myself both enraged and in tears, repeatedly as these people's lives were destroyed.

And the country seems to have followed suit. In light of the TV drama, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today that the government would introduce new legislation "to make sure those convicted are swiftly exonerated and compensated", and that this would be introduced "within weeks" with a view to granting the acquittal this year. Already, the current Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake had announced a £75,000 offer to group litigation claimants, with the option to continue with litigation if they believe they are entitled to more. Fujitsu is being called upon to pay compensation, not to the Government or to the Post Office, but directly to former postmasters.

Two of the main people running the Post Office at the time, and portrayed in the drama, have also been under scrutiny. Paula Vennals and Angela van den Bogerd. Yesterday, Paula Vennals who was chief executive officer of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019, was a Board Member at the UK Government Cabinet Office between 2019 and 2020, and who became a priest in the Church of England. Yesterday, she stated that, after a 1.2 million-strong petition, she is handing back her CBC honorary award from the British government, given to her in 2019, saying that she was “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system" and that "I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence. I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE. I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect." Although only the King can actually remove titles and until that point, she remains Paula Vennells CBE. She has also been called on to repay past bonuses.

Angela van den Bogerd was Post Office head of partnerships, handling complaints about Horizon since 2010, and had sat on a working group to deal with the scandal since 2014m before being appointed Business Improvement Director in 2018. After giving evidence in an earlier trial, the judge, the Rt Hon Justice Fraser, had criticised her testimony, saying that she "did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me". She left the Post Office in late 2020 to become Head Of People at the Football Association of Wales, an appointment that was cited in a no-confidence motion against the body's chief executive, and for Van den Bogerd in leave in early 2021. She deleted her LinkedIn account in response to the furore, though restored it under an abbreviated name, which still boasts of her time at the Post Office of a "Senior leadership role accountable for managing the strategic relationship with POL recognised trade unions – CWU and Unite – and the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) and the design, development and delivery of all associated operational policies and procedures. Business lead negotiator for pay, collective agreements and ways of working with the Unions and the NFSP."

The third main figure involved in the Post Office scandal was not featured in this drama. Adam Crozier was CEO of Royal Mail Ltd during this period,  but his role in the scandal was not dramatised. After all, Crozier left Royal Mail in 2010 to become chief executive of ITV and a director of ITV Studio, both broadcaster and producer of this drama, until 2017. He became the chairman of British Telecom in 2021. So questions are being asked about his absence as well.

Politicians are also under the spotlight, with current Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Postal Affairs Minister from 2010 to 2012, stating that the Post Office repeatedly lied to him about the situation, with calls on him to give up his knighthood after he was accused of refusing to meet with Alan Bates during the campaign.

What is evident, however, is the power of television to change things, especially when experienced by a mass, free-to-air broadcasting audience in one territory at one time, when it is so minded. Cathy Come Home and War Game from the BBC in 1966, are still touted as highlights in the UK, raising mass awareness of homelessness and the threat of nuclear war. Mr Bates vs The Post Office will join their hallowed number in television history books... and is a sure-fire entry for the Best TV Shows Of 2024 even at this early stage.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office can be watched in full on the ITVX Player. A four-part series written by Gwyneth Hughes, directed by James Strong from ITV Studios and Little Gem, starring Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alex Jennings, Ian Hart, Lia Williams, Will Mellor, Amy Nuttall, Katherine Kelly, Krupa Pattani, Amit Shah, Colin Tierney, Clare Calbraith, Shaun Dooley, Lesley Nicol, John Hollingworth, Adam James, with Nadhim Zahawi and James Naughtie playing themselves.