\u201cMany of the wronged workers were prosecuted, some were imprisoned for crimes they never committed and their lives were irreparably damaged by the scandal,\u201d said ITV<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Will Mellor plays Lee Castleton, a former subpostmaster from Bridlington, Yorkshire, who was forced to declare himself bankrupt after he was ordered to pay the Post Office more than \u00a3300,000<\/a> following a court hearing \u2013 a figure that had shot up from the initial \u00a320,000 he was accused of stealing, and also included the organisation\u2019s legal bill.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Mellor told RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cLike I said, if it wasn\u2019t a true story you\u2019d say it\u2019s a bit far-fetched. [Happening] not only to one person but to probably thousands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have 555 [in the drama]. That\u2019s what they called those who came together and built up a case. And every one of them was told that they were on their own, that this hadn\u2019t happened to anybody else.<\/p>\n \u201cThey tried to make them feel isolated so they didn\u2019t feel they had anyone to turn to, that this was just them, which is even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Mellor went on to question why the Post Office didn\u2019t \u201cjust say sorry, you\u2019re right, it\u2019s a problem with the system, you don\u2019t owe us any money\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey hadn\u2019t taken any money, so that means the Post Office hadn\u2019t lost any money,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t they just draw a line under it and rectify the problem. Why ram it down their throats and say now you owe us this much, knowing they were innocent?<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand what they got from that. And personally, how you could go home and sleep at night or hug your children knowing you\u2019re ruining some other family\u2019s life? It\u2019s beyond me. That\u2019s what I can\u2019t get my head around.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnology is one thing, but the human element of this is what I can\u2019t get my head around. How you could do this to people?\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI was so angry when I was filming it, and upset. And that helped when I was playing it. I just got into that mindset, and hopefully that comes through.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020<\/a>, Tim Parker, then-chairman of the Post Office, said he was \u201csincerely sorry\u201d on behalf of the company for its \u201chistorical failings\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPost Office is resetting its relationship with postmasters with reforms that prevent such past events ever happening again,\u201d he added.<\/p> Mr Bates vs the Post Office arrives on 1st January at 9pm on ITV and ITVX. Check out more of our Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to visit Death in Paradise locations in Guadeloupe at a discount?\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times is offering savings of up to 7% for registered users booking their next holiday with travel website Expedia.\u00a0<\/strong>Claim your exclusive Radio Times Expedia holiday discount now<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n “How you could do this to people?” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41899,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-offices-will-mellor-the-story-makes-me-so-angry-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\"How you could do this to people?\"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Amit](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/mrbatesvsthepostoffice01-6041f5c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"mr_bates_vs_the_post_office_01\\"\/")
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