‘Mr Bates Vs the Post Office’ TV Drama That Shook Britain Comes to PBS

• “Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office” had a remarkable impact after its broadcast in Britain and is now coming to PBS.
• The tragedy sparked public outrage over hundreds of wrongful convictions.
• People who ran small post offices were falsely accused of theft, but it was faulty software that was to blame.

It took a television series to bring justice to thousands of people in Britain caught up in what the Prime Minister called one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice.

Barely a week after ITV began broadcasting ‘Mr Bates Against the Post Office’ in January, Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons that the government was introducing legislation to overturn the convictions of more than 700 submasters From post. They run small post offices, often in small communities where everyone knows everyone.

The drama is now airing on PBS, with the first episode airing Sunday.

The scandal dates back more than a quarter of a century, when the Postal Service adopted a computer system at great expense to modernize its operations. This system, provided by the Japanese company Fujitsu, appeared to show that many deputy station chiefs were stealing money – but this was not the case. It was the Horizon system that was failing.

Many were imprisoned or found themselves bankrupt after paying off debts they never had or had their businesses taken away. Seema Misra, convicted of stealing £74,000 (about $95,000) and sentenced to 15 months in prison for theft and false accounting, said she would have killed herself if she had not been pregnant with her second child at the time.

Peter Huxham took his own life in July 2020 after being jailed for eight months over a £16,000 loss of earnings and the breakdown of his marriage.
Martin Griffiths, 59, jumped in front of a bus in 2013 after being falsely accused of theft from his post office in Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool.

Others have had their marriages destroyed, been ostracized by their communities, and financially ruined. Julian Wilson, for his part, died before he could clear his name. Each case is shocking in its own way.

Journalists have been covering Horizon issues for at least 15 years. Media outlets like Computer Weekly, Private Eye and public broadcaster BBC have covered the story extensively – but that’s only in the four-part drama starring Toby Jones (who appeared in the films “Harry Potter” and ” Hunger Games”) that millions of people became aware of the injustice, not to mention the untold pain and suffering inflicted on sub-station chiefs and their families.

The scheme centered on Alan Bates, who, with his partner, invested in a post shop in Wales in 1998. A number of financial discrepancies were identified by the IT system and when he refused to repay a sum, the post office terminated its contract. , wiping out their £60,000 investment and destroying their livelihood. For more than two decades, Bates has campaigned for justice for hundreds of people like him. He was not prosecuted, but many others were.

A letter to The Guardian newspaper from John Beer of Farnham, Surrey, sums up the reaction of many people: “With growing disbelief and rage, I saw that this revealed the extent to which some senior management and management boards have administration would be willing to go to protect their businesses even if they knew the lives of so many good and honest people were ruined or wiped out. »

Public anger prompted ministers to act incredibly quickly in drafting a new law aimed at clearing the names of all those convicted – although cynics say the looming general election later this year has also helped focus minds. The blanket acquittal appears to be the first time Parliament has been asked to overturn a court verdict, The Guardian reported.

While some convictions have already been overturned, most have not, and a government inquiry into the scandal is still gathering evidence and will not report until next year.

A large number of questions remain unanswered. Why did the Post Office — which was government property since 2012 – continue to sue people in case of doubt about the software? And why did the government continue to award contracts worth almost £5 billion ($6.4 billion) to Fujitsu, even after the The Court of Appeal ruled in December 2019 that its software was at fault?

Then there is the question of whether taxpayers should be expected to foot the £600,000 ($763,000) compensation bill for each wrongful conviction. That sounds like a lot of money, but campaigners say it only covers lost income rather than including damages for many.

A government minister, Kevin Hollinrake, said Fujitsu would have to foot part of the bill if the public inquiry found it “guilty”. Fujitsu apologized for the postmasters’ “sufferings”, but did not make further comments “out of respect for the investigative process”, the Financial Times reported.

The conduct of postal directors is also the subject of renewed scrutiny. BBC News reported Friday that the company lied and made threats before airing a 2015 interview with a whistleblower revealing that figures in the Horizon system could be changed without users’ knowledge.

Gwyneth Hughes, who wrote the drama, said in a press release that despite their pain and suffering, the victims of the postal scandal “manage to be funny, warm and welcoming even after 25 years of their ordeal. It s “It was about ordinary British people, living ordinary British lives, until suddenly it wasn’t,” she said.

“Suddenly, they were called thieves and villains, trapped in a nightmare of false accusations and public humiliation. Innocent people, pillars of their communities, and worst of all, everyone was told “They said he was the only one having problems with the Horizon computer system.”

After more than a million people signed a petition calling for Paula Vennells, the former CEO of the Post Office, to be stripped of a public honor called a CBE which was awarded to her in 2019 for services to the organization and charitable works. This week, the former Anglican priest decided to voluntarily repay the honor and said in a statement that she was “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the deputy postmasters and their families.”

Alan Bates had declined a similar honor while Vennells still held his, but that could soon change. Sunak’s spokesman said it was “difficult to imagine anyone more deserving than him” and that he could be in the running for a knighthood, Britain’s highest honour.

The death of network television has been predicted many times, but it is not completely dead yet. Perhaps this is only because advertisers still find it the best way to reach a mass audience.

Still, it’s highly likely that if a streaming platform or even a pay TV channel had aired the drama, it wouldn’t have had the same impact, if only because far fewer people would have seen it. The program and accompanying documentary have been seen by almost 15 million people, according to ITV.

James Strong, the director, told BBC News: “It’s amazing – we thought we could hopefully raise awareness and bring the victims’ story to a wider audience, but no one would have ever thought that we would get this kind of reaction and response… it’s mind-blowing.”

Polly Hill, ITV’s head of drama, said: “We ordered this drama because it was a story that needed to be told. Like everyone watching the show, I couldn’t believe what happened. We all just wanted the drama to help to get this story heard by as many people as we could. ITV is proud to have told this story and to support the Deputy Postmasters.

“Mr. Bates versus the Post Office” airs weekly on PBS starting Sunday, April 7. Episodes will be available broadcast for 14 days and can also be streamed on the PBS app, PBS Passportand the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.