Mr Bates vs. The Post Office

ITV are a real powerhouse for Drama at the moment. Elsewhere I have reviewed the confused nature of BBC drama and then I tuned in to watch this brilliant piece from ITV.

TV drama at its best can offer an insight into the human dramas around us, one that goes behind the newspaper headlines and fleshes out details and gains a wider acknowledgement of how big corporations have acted in a shameful way.

This is also gripping and entertaining, it's beautifully shot and written. It is astonishing how the POST OFFICE managed to get away with this for so long and still the legacy of pain from these cases endures. I would have perhaps liked to have known more about HOW it happened but I guess the ongoing public enquiry is for that.

There are standout performances, none more so than the ever reliable Toby Jones. The wonderful Monica Dolan and brilliant work by Amy Nutall and. Will Mellor are heartbreaking as another couple rolled over by the system. The performance by Krupa Pattani is brilliant and shocking. The pain is never over played and remains with you long after the programme is over.

I hope that this programme adds to the understanding of what these people went through and that at the end of the public enquiry some will pay for their despicable behaviour toward the innocent.

Well done ITV and director. James Strong and writer Gwyneth. Hughes. When you look at the response from the public and how it has moved political debate it proves that drama and the arts in general are vital, useful and key to a functioning democracy.

This was riveting and we binge watched the 4 episodes and then the seperate Mr Bates the true story . The latter shows how accurately was the depiction of a true (and ongoing) story.

Really well made and acted

A shocking example of how corporate management will protect their brand image. That they can do no wrong and therefore cannot admit any mistakes or errors.

No matter who has to suffer as a consequence.

And when an organisation like the post office has the power to investigate itself and is virtually a law unto itself how the senior executives abuse that power.

The lengths the post office executive would go to try to cover up software mistakes was shocking.

Even more shocking was there has been no. Prosecutions of the post office management nor Fujitsu, (The post office CEO Paula Vennells was even awarded a CBE in 2020 )

You really feel the injustice to hundreds of sub-post masters who were persecuted, prosecuted and sacked. Which went on for years, despite the fact there was plenty of evidence something was wrong and post masters themselves had been saying so for years.

The issue was described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in Brtish history (and it is still yet to be resolved)

A vivid real life example of how big companies can never be trusted to 'do the right thing'. They will always follow profit and self interest.

How chief executives when allowed to be a law unto themselves abuse this power and the arrogance that they do not have to answer to anyone. (nor have they to date)

Riveting watch.

I was aghast watching this riveting but desperately sad depiction of true events that befell and still befalls over 3,500 subpostmasters in Britain from 2001 to date.

Superb performances from Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Will Mellor and Katherine Kelly but to name all who brought this drama series to life. Thank You.

My deepest sympathies and condolences to all who suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of an unquestionably evil British Post Office - and by extension, British government past and present - who treated and continue to treat some 3,500 people, their families and wider society with outrageous disdain, cruelty and pure evil. Shame on all those lawyers who sacrificed their souls by an egregious contempt of integrity, decency and honesty by hiding behind that of which is called law and justice, which to date, is no law or justice whatsoever.

Particular mention should be made of Paula Vannells, the former CEO of The Post Office, who acted dispicably and reprehensibly in never accepting any wrongdoing on the part of the Post Office, or her role as CEO. That the book was not thrown at her is an affront not just to that of law and justice themselves, but to the moral and ethical fabric of society itself. That she was 'out of her depth' is no shape or form a defence of her evil actions. She epitomises what is wrong with SO MANY so-called leaders in society today, be they in business, politics, sport, religious or charities. She is a poison that continues to poison and her role as a part-time priest is beyond nauseating.

I wept a number of times throughout this outstanding TV production and urge all to fight with all their breadth wherever and whenever injustice reigns. Because if you don't, you will allow people of the ilk of Paula Vannells and her cohorts, to continue to reign contempt and evil on all who never ever deserved such injustice against them...

It's true. All of it.

My dad was a victim. Turned up at his shop and demanded £54,000.

Ransacked my parents house and took away anything of value.

Forced my parents to sell their shop (to the post office!).

My parents had to leave their home behind, in disgrace, and try to start a new life elsewhere. They barely went outside for the next 20 years.

The people missing from this drama, are the investigators, who had a financial incentive NOT to investigate.

Their annual bonus was based on the amount of 'missing' money they could recover, so instead of investigating, they just demanded cash.

A spectacular miscarriage of justice affecting hundreds of ordinary people. The Post Office, in fact a government department, persecuted their employees for what turned out to be, their faulty computer system. The computer company and post office are shown to be heartless liars who made enormous efforts to cover up their mistake and hide the evidence. Eventually the employees achieve the truth and expose the errors. Some minor financial settlement is achieved that in no way compensates the hundreds of people whose lives have been ruined. A true David vs Goliath story that was quite upsetting to watch, not least because it is true!