The ITV drama’s lead character is played by Toby Jones, but who is Alan Bates?
New ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the stories of a number of real-life figures, but it focuses on none more closely than the title character, Alan Bates.
The real-life former subpostmaster, who played a crucial role in bringing the Post Office scandal to light, is played in the four-part series by Toby Jones, who previously said he was “ashamed” not to know more about the events depicted in the programme before starring in it.
He said: “I was approached earlier this year by Patrick Spence, the executive producer… He and James [Strong, director] and Gwyneth [Hughes, writer] talked me through the issues that it addresses, which I am ashamed to say I had a scant knowledge of.
“Gwyneth had hewn a drama out of the most extraordinary amount of research. I wanted to do it because it’s an urgent piece of drama; so much TV today is preoccupied with our recent history, rather than what is the actuality.”
But who is Alan Bates, as depicted in Mr Bates vs The Post Office? Read on for everything you need to know.
Who is Alan Bates and what happened to him?
68-year-old Alan Bates is a former subpostmaster and campaigner, who took over a shop with a post office counter in 1998.
He first became aware of issues with the Horizon computer system, used for account keeping in post offices, by the end of 2000, when a shortage of £6,000 appeared on his books.
He managed to rectify this by noticing multiple duplicated transactions in the system, but in 2003 his contract with the Post Office was terminated, when it claimed £1,200 was unaccounted for.
Bates and his partner Suzanne Sercombe kept their shop but lost the Post Office counter, and their investment of around £60,000.
After his Post Office contract was terminated, Bates set up a website to highlight his concerns with Horizon, and found other subpostmasters and mistresses who had found similar issues, some of whom had been prosecuted for unaccounted losses.
In 2018, Bates and five other lead claimants took the Post Office to the High Court in a Group Litigation Order. The judge ruled in 2019 that Horizon contained “bugs, errors and defects”, leading to the Post Office agreeing to settle with all 555 claimants.
In total, the Post Office identified 700 convictions in cases where issues with Horizon might have featured, with more than 80 of these having now been overturned.
A public inquiry into what happened was established in 2023. Bates is now retired, but when receiving a Pride of Britain Award earlier this year, he said he will continue to speak out for those impacted by the scandal.
He was recommended for an OBE this year, but he wrote back saying it was inappropriate to accept it in light of the fact that Paula Vennells, the former CEO of the Post Office, still retains her CBE for services to the Post Office and to charity.
Who plays Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs The Post Office?
Alan Bates is the central character in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, and he is played by acclaimed actor Toby Jones.
Jones has had a long and storied career, playing Arnim Zola in the MCU and having other major roles in films including The Hunger Games, Frost/Nixon, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, My Week with Marilyn, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Dad’s Army and Empire of Light.
He also voiced house elf Dobby in the Harry Potter films, and has starred in TV series including Detectorists and The Long Shadow.
Jones met Bates on a number of occasions, and previously explained his decision making when it came to how he depicted him.
He said: “I’m not playing Alan Bates. I’m playing [writer] Gwyneth Hughes’s version of Alan Bates.
“I had said to Alan, ‘I’m not going to imitate you, but I need to be you enough to differentiate you, to show where you’re from and to root you in a specific context.’
“This was because Alan isn’t metropolitan like me, or from the south. He’s originally from Liverpool and has been living in Wales for some time. So, I talked to him about his roots, his work, the main events of his life, his routines.
“Secretly, I was trying to work out what drove him on, but he’s remarkably adept at obfuscating, at not giving any clues as to how he has come to do what he’s done.
“It’s a genuine humility that he has and there is something mysterious about that in this day and age.”
Mr Bates vs the Post Office arrives on 1st January at 9pm on ITV and ITVX. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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