Mr Bates vs. The Post Office

A brilliant portrayal by Toby Jones, and a magnificent exposé of an appalling episode in British public life, one which has yet to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and probably never will.

We live in Australia, where of two recent Royal Commissions, one uncovered massive wrongdoing by the banks, which resulted in many ordinary people losing their homes and their life savings, and more recently a flawed computer system called 'Robodebt' punished hundreds of thousands of innocent and vulnerable people, and led to several suicides. But were these ever made right? Well, tragically you can't ever undo the suicides, but did people ever get back what they lost, and were the guilty ever punished?

Of course not! Don't be so silly!!!!

The guilty were bankers in case one and politicians and senior civil servants in case two. Not a single one was ever charged with a crime, let alone convicted. No banker ever did time, nor did any politician. You see, they and Paula Vennells belong to a different class from us, a privileged class for whom the law simply does not apply. They live their lives of luxury, draw their enormous bonuses, and eventually retire with huge hand-outs, while we all struggle down in the mire.

My prediction is that Sunak will say that it is not within his power to rescind the CBE of Vennells, and that it would not be "in the public interest" for her to be prosecuted and sent to jail for all she has done.

Nothing to see here, just let's move on.

That innocent postmasters did jail time, and some were driven to suicide, was just collateral damage in setting up a new 21st century digital post office, and Vennells will no doubt still be praised to the sky for all her wonderful achievements in doing so.

People in Britain were once ruled by feudal aristocrats and royals. Now they are ruled by feudal politicians and executives. Not a lot has changed in all these centuries.

This is not really a review, but it's hard to write one while feeling so angry.

So here's the review. Brilliantly acted, very tight script and screenplay to fit so many years into four episodes. Toby Jones for a top award.

10/10, and deserves 20/10.

It's true. All of it.

My dad was a victim. Turned up at his shop and demanded £54,000.

Ransacked my parents house and took away anything of value.

Forced my parents to sell their shop (to the post office!).

My parents had to leave their home behind, in disgrace, and try to start a new life elsewhere. They barely went outside for the next 20 years.

The people missing from this drama, are the investigators, who had a financial incentive NOT to investigate.

Their annual bonus was based on the amount of 'missing' money they could recover, so instead of investigating, they just demanded cash.

For anyone who doesn't know the story of the Horizon Post Office Scandal, it's hard to sum up in a few line sound bites. Essentially at the turn of the year 2000 the entire Post Office Network in the UK became computerised. The new computer system, Horizon, was outsourced and designed by Fujitsu. It was already late, had gone over budget and was full of bugs, but was launched anyway. Soon thereafter Postmasters all over the country began experiencing shortfalls on their accounts, shortfalls which due to their draconian contract they were legally liable for. The Post Office had an entire investigation and legal department responsible for prosecuting postmasters, which it did with great vigour, while exercising no investigation whatsoever to the Post Masters claims - that Horizon was at fault. This party line continued for near on 20 years, while Postmasters all over the country were having their lives systematically destroyed by the very brand they had been working for. Many lost most or all of their savings, relationships suffered, and some committed suicide.

The main protagonist here is Alan Bates (Toby Jones) a former Subpostmaster who begins to rally other victims to his cause, and ultimately takes the Post Office on in the High Court. The span of the story here covers a period of well over twenty years and it does well to juggle multiple narratives and storylines, as well as give a greater insight into some of those who were responsible (at least two of whom, portrayed in this drama, should be facing prison sentences) fort this utter travesty - The meat of the screen time goes to Bates, Jo Hamilton (an excellent performance from Monica Dolan) and Lee Castleton (a nice out of type casting of Will Mellor in the role) - Postmasters all at the sharp end of this tale. A couple of composite characters make up some of the other Postmasters and other characters in the story including Bob Rutherford (Ian Hart) are composites, his character being based on the Second Sight duo of Ian Henderson & Ron Warmington. Hart nails them both superbly wioth his role. Other notable performances are the likes of Lia Williams and Katherine Kelly, playing Paula Vennells and Angela van den Bogerd, two women who were out of their depth in their own Post Office Senior Management roles, let alone in exploring the Horizon issue at hand. And whose lying apathy is brilliantly captured by both actors. Shaun Dooley, an actor I always have a lot of time for is great as Michael Riffikin, the man who saw first hand accounts being altered by employees at Fujitsu remotely. Amit Shah & Alex Jennings both give solid turns in their respective roles.

When I first saw the trailer for this series, I was initially worried that such a crucial story of our time had been reduced to a Ms Marble like Sunday easy going drama affair. Fortunately, despite the God awful song on the closing credits of every episode, this drama scores more than it misses and doesn't shy away from several of the darker aspects of the story.

For the most part this is a show which does a superb job of juggling an incredibly complex topic, and is anchored by solid and well researched performances. Some of the dialogue is very expositional at times, (especially in episode 1) but there is a lot to pack into the four hour running time. In what really should have been a six parter for a story of this type and scale, inevitably some things, events and people were not included. It did feel a little criminal not to at least mention the investigation work done by Panorama, (a major turning point in the story) or have the name of investigating Journalist Nick Wallace mentioned by someone, somewhere in the show. (his name is in the credits to be fair) These were key turning points in the fight for justice and warrant inclusion and I am sure we could have had a few less shots of the impressive Welsh Countryside and a bit more meat elsewhere.. But this is essentially the Postmasters story, and while it would have been interesting to see more scenes on who, what, where and when took key decisions at both the Post Office and Fujitsu, this drama should go a long way to waking up the general public on this crucial issue of public interest, who have been largely ignorant of it for so long.

It's vital viewing and essential part of the quest for justice in what has become the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. I remind you, like the show does itself, the fight continues for many, and its not over yet.

Highly recommended.

I'm glad that this horrendous story is finally getting the headline and prime time news that it deserves.

Paula Vennells and the Post office are an absolute disgrace. Knowingly sending almost 300 people to gaol for a crime that you know 100% they did not commit but was 100% fraud comitting by the Post office, under Paula's instruction, well there just aren't words to describe how evil Paula is.

This show is a fantastic portray of the corruption of the post office and how they not only cheated their loyal postmasters out of their live savings but also how they tried to cover it all up.

Hopefully not that this show has been aired the Post office will be held accountable and Paula will be stripped of her honours and gaoled.

Best ITV show of 2024.

This was riveting and we binge watched the 4 episodes and then the seperate Mr Bates the true story . The latter shows how accurately was the depiction of a true (and ongoing) story.

Really well made and acted

A shocking example of how corporate management will protect their brand image. That they can do no wrong and therefore cannot admit any mistakes or errors.

No matter who has to suffer as a consequence.

And when an organisation like the post office has the power to investigate itself and is virtually a law unto itself how the senior executives abuse that power.

The lengths the post office executive would go to try to cover up software mistakes was shocking.

Even more shocking was there has been no. Prosecutions of the post office management nor Fujitsu, (The post office CEO Paula Vennells was even awarded a CBE in 2020 )

You really feel the injustice to hundreds of sub-post masters who were persecuted, prosecuted and sacked. Which went on for years, despite the fact there was plenty of evidence something was wrong and post masters themselves had been saying so for years.

The issue was described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in Brtish history (and it is still yet to be resolved)

A vivid real life example of how big companies can never be trusted to 'do the right thing'. They will always follow profit and self interest.

How chief executives when allowed to be a law unto themselves abuse this power and the arrogance that they do not have to answer to anyone. (nor have they to date)

Riveting watch.