The four-part series explores how hundreds of subpostmasters and mistresses were falsely accused of theft, fraud and false accounting<\/a> due to an IT malfunction.<\/p>\n Will Mellor portrays Lee Castleton in the series, a subpostmaster from Yorkshire who was taken to court by the Post Office for missing funds, which led to him having to declare himself bankrupt.<\/p>\n Castleton was ordered to pay the Post Office more than \u00a3300,000<\/a>, a figure that rose from the \u00a320,000 that he was accused of stealing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is more that needs to happen,\u201d Mellor told RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cThey do get something, it\u2019s not like they get nothing, but there is more that can be done. We have to hold people accountable for what they\u2019ve done. And they\u2019re pushing for more. They\u2019re still fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cHow they [the Post Office] slept at night, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s just unbelievable, a massive company like that. And the power of the Post Office, which I didn\u2019t know until I did this, is they don\u2019t need the police. They have their own policing system.<\/p>\n \u201cThat shows you that they stand on their own and that\u2019s why they are as powerful as they are, why they got away with what they did.<\/p>\n \u201cEven watching it, I still shake my head going, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this is happening,\u2019 and I\u2019m in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking of his character, Mellor notes that his journey begins \u201cangry\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018I\u2019m going to fight this, it will be all right, I\u2019ll just tell the truth, I believe in the British justice system,’\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go from that to when he literally loses everything, and he\u2019s a broken man, he breaks down and he\u2019s apologising for something he hasn\u2019t done, and then the days are hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Mellor explained that he has played emotional characters in the past, but there was something different when it came to Castleton because \u201cthis is a real person, so it lands ever harder\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\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> <\/div>\n Mr Bates vs The Post Office is available to watch on ITVX. Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a>to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to visit Death in Paradise locations in Guadeloupe at a discount? <\/strong>Radio Times is offering savings of up to 7% for registered users booking their next holiday with travel website Expedia. <\/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 subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n “Even watching it, I still shake my head going, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ and I’m in it.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43024,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/mr-bates-star-on-post-office-scandal-we-have-to-hold-people-accountable-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":"\"Even watching it, I still shake my head going, 'I can't believe this is happening,' and I'm in it.\"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43023"}],"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\/43024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Will](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/will-mellor-9679b90.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Mr")
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