{"id":49128,"date":"2024-04-08T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T07:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2016515"},"modified":"2024-04-08T09:42:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T07:42:12","slug":"mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-didnt-change-the-law-the-people-of-britain-did","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-didnt-change-the-law-the-people-of-britain-did\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mr Bates vs The Post Office didn\u2019t change the law \u2013 the people of Britain did\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

“That wasn’t us, that was Great Britain, that was the United Kingdom. That was the best of all of us.” <\/p>

By Katelyn Mensah\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 08 April 2024 at 07:00 AM<\/p>

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Mr Bates vs The Post Office became a talking point among everyone when it was released at the beginning of this year, and no one could have predicted the heights it went to \u2013 re-energising the fight to get justice for those wrongly prosecuted during the Post Office scandal.<\/p>\n

Over several years, more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly accused and prosecuted of theft, fraud and false accounting due to the defective Horizon IT system. People\u2019s livelihoods were ruined and it was Alan Bates who took the Post Office to court in order to get justice.<\/p>\n

The four-part series shone a light on an issue that turned many people\u2019s lives upside down, and it got Britain talking and soon the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would bring in a new law to \u201cswiftly exonerate and compensate victims\u201d.<\/p>\n

With its tenacious storytelling and success with critics and audiences alike, it is no surprise the series has topped this year\u2019s Radio Times\u2019 TV 100<\/strong> list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Toby\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Toby Jones as Alan Bates and Julie Hesmondhalgh as Suzanne in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV Studios\/ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI think we all feel incredibly proud to be British, when we watched the way, you know \u2013 all we did was we made a TV drama, and it made people angry,\u201d producer Patrick Spence told RadioTimes.com<\/a> about the impact of the series.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWhat the people of this country did was they rose up as one and demanded of the Prime Minister that he take action. That wasn\u2019t us, that was Great Britain, that was the United Kingdom. That was the best of all of us. Standing up and saying, \u2018Enough already, you\u2019ve got to do something about this.\u2019 And that made us very proud to be a small part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Spencer noted, the series sparked something with the British public, which led to hundreds of thousands of people signing a petition, calling for ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells<\/a> to be stripped of her CBE.<\/p>\n

It was under Vennell\u2019s leadership that the Post Office wrongly prosecuted hundreds of its employees and she has since returned her CBE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Monica\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton in Mr Bates vs the Post Office.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV Studios\/ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The series itself broke records for ITV and became the most watched programme of 2024 so far and ITV\u2019s biggest new drama in over a decade<\/a>, something show bosses did not expect.<\/p>\n

Polly Hill, the ITV commissioner behind the drama, told RadioTimes.com<\/strong>: \u201cI did think it would get a lot of interest from the press and I hoped of course that it would find an audience as it was a brilliant telling of the story, but we could never have imagined the attention we got.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I\u2019m not surprised the drama made the nation angry because it\u2019s a story that shocked and angered everyone who came on board. We are all really proud of what our drama has helped achieve. It shouldn\u2019t have taken a drama to make the government take action, but we are proud that our drama has done so much good.\u201d<\/p>\n