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<\/a>, who previously said<\/a> he was \u201cashamed\u201d not to know more about the events depicted in the programme before starring in it.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI was approached earlier this year by Patrick Spence, the executive producer\u2026 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.<\/p>\n \u201cGwyneth had hewn a drama out of the most extraordinary amount of research. I wanted to do it because it\u2019s an urgent piece of drama; so much TV today is preoccupied with our recent history, rather than what is the actuality.\u201d<\/p>\n But who is Alan Bates, as depicted in Mr Bates vs The Post Office? Read on for everything you need to know.<\/p>\n 68-year-old Alan Bates is a former subpostmaster and campaigner, who took over a shop with a post office counter in 1998.<\/p>\n 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 \u00a36,000 appeared on his books.<\/p>\n He managed to rectify this by noticing multiple duplicated transactions in the system, but in 2003 his contract with the Post Office was terminated<\/a>, when it claimed \u00a31,200 was unaccounted for.<\/p>\n Bates and his partner Suzanne Sercombe kept their shop but lost the Post Office counter, and their investment of around \u00a360,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> that Horizon contained \u201cbugs, errors and defects\u201d, leading to the Post Office agreeing to settle with all 555 claimants<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He was recommended for an OBE this year, but he wrote back saying it was inappropriate to accept it<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Alan Bates is the central character in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, and he is played by acclaimed actor Toby Jones.<\/p>\n Jones has had a long and storied career, playing Arnim Zola in the\u00a0MCU<\/a> and having other major roles in films including\u00a0The Hunger Games<\/a>, Frost\/Nixon, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, My Week with Marilyn,\u00a0Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny<\/a>, Dad\u2019s Army and Empire of Light.<\/p>\n He also voiced house elf Dobby in the\u00a0Harry Potter<\/a> films, and has starred in TV series including Detectorists<\/a> and The Long Shadow<\/a>.<\/p> Jones met Bates on a number of occasions, and previously explained his decision making when it came to how he depicted him.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI\u2019m not playing Alan Bates. I\u2019m playing [writer] Gwyneth Hughes\u2019s version of Alan Bates.<\/p>\n \u201cI had said to Alan, \u2018I\u2019m not going to imitate you, but I need to be you enough to differentiate you, to show where you\u2019re from and to root you in a specific context.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThis was because Alan isn\u2019t metropolitan like me, or from the south. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSecretly, I was trying to work out what drove him on, but he\u2019s remarkably adept at obfuscating, at not giving any clues as to how he has come to do what he\u2019s done.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a genuine humility that he has and there is something mysterious about that in this day and age.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Bates vs the Post Office arrives on 1st January at 9pm on ITV and ITVX. Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV 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 The ITV drama’s lead character is played by Toby Jones, but who is Alan Bates? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42817,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/what-happened-to-alan-bates-from-mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-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":"The ITV drama's lead character is played by Toby Jones, but who is Alan Bates?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42816"}],"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\/42817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who is Alan Bates and what happened to him?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/mrbatesvsthepostofficeep401-459a053.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"mr_bates_vs_the_post_office_ep4_01\\"\/")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Who plays Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs The Post Office?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/alanbatesvsthepostofficelaunch01-401d251.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"alan_bates_vs_the_post_office_launch_01\\"\/")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"