Mr Bates vs the Post Office belongs to that handful of British TV dramas – think Cathy Come Home or Queer as Folk – that changed the world we live in, but the shocking truth is that it almost didn’t get made.
This was one of several remarkable insights shared with the RTS into the four-part ITV series that finally drew the public’s attention to what may be our broken nation’s gravest miscarriage of justice ever.
Since its release in January 2024, Mr Bates vs The Post Office has already gained a viewership of over ten million and counting. But the ITV drama has done much more than just prove a ratings success; its retelling of the Post Office Horizon Scandal has stirred up so much public indignation that it's accelerated the cogs of justice for the wrongly accused postal staff.
Now, the creators of this remarkable series will pull back the curtain on how they brought this decades-long saga to screen, and reveal how drama can have the power to make lasting change in society.
Did Mr Bates vs the Post Office have you glued to your TV screen?” asked ITV on social media. The question – presumably rhetorical given the New Year drama’s colossal ratings – was plugging an archive clip of what seems to be the first TV news coverage, in English, of the UK’s biggest miscarriage of justice. “In English” is important.
The Detectorist’s Toby Jones stars as the Erin Brockovich of the British Post Office Scandal, Mr Bates.
