By Olivia Henry
At the turn of the 21st century, the Post Office committed what is regarded by many as ‘the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history’ when it accused its employees of stealing money from various branches and forced them to pay this money back, despite knowing they were innocent. As a result of these false allegations, 236 innocent workers went to jail, 900 were wrongly prosecuted and many more were fined for convictions of false accounting. Yet, it took the creation of a TV drama, two decades later, for the misconduct of one of the UK’s largest public facilities to be recognised on a national scale.
Since its release on the 1st of January 2024, the ITV drama ‘Mr Bates Vs the Post Office’ has amassed a viewing of nine million, turning public attention back towards a scandal that changed the lives of hundreds of postal workers. The programme follows sub-postmaster Alan Bates in his pursuit to expose the wrongdoings of Post Office executives who concealed the fact that their financial shortfalls were a result of the newly installed software system Horizon. Instead, they let their employees carry the burden of their monetary loss, when they convicted hundreds of post office workers on grounds of theft, fraud and false accounting.
According to the Times, from as early as 2003, letters were sent to government ministers detailing the concerns held by the Post Office that Fujitsu’s Horizon system was faulty. But no action was taken to resolve the issue and the Post Office began convicting postmasters at a rate of 70 per year.
Mr Bates led the Justice for Postmasters Alliance Group who won a series of legal battles against the Post Office between 2017 and 2019, resulting in the distribution of a settlement of £58 million.
The popularity of Gwyneth Hughes’ semi-fictionalised series has not only renewed public interest in the scandal but has also, as reported by the BBC, inspired more that 100 new potential victims to come forward. Former head of the Post Office Paula Vennells recently handed back her CBE in response to the widespread condemnation of her misconduct, marking another triumph for the Postmasters Alliance Group.
But despite such victories, justice still waits to be served. With hundreds of wrongful convictions yet to be overturned and more than 4,000 people having been classed as eligible for compensation, government ministers are under significant pressure to ensure that this injustice does not go unpunished again.
Amidst the reemergence of the scandal into the political spotlight, one prominent question remains to be answered: By what means did a television drama manage to instigate significant change something that no group of protestors, reporters or even court judges could do? Perhaps it is due the ignorance of our society which regards engagement with televised content as a necessity for acknowledging political injustices. Or it could be a result of the unique capacity of a television drama to portray the story’s humility and vulnerability, a quality seemingly absent in other forms of media coverage.
Regardless of the answer, the resurgence of the Post Office scandal has unquestionably taught a crucial lesson regarding accountability, integrity, and the requisite sensitivity demanded of individuals occupying positions of authority.