MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE - mon to thur ITV 9pm - tv pace no spoilers

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Mon to thur

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is an ITV drama based on a true story of injustice starring Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, WIll Mellor and Monica Dolan.
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Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a hard-hitting ITV1 drama starring Toby Jones, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh among others.

The series details one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where thousands of Post Office sub postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows Alan Bates (Toby Jones), a sub postmaster who decided to fight back against a scandalous miscarriage of justice.

He was one of thousands of sub postmasters and postmistresses who between 2000 and 2013 were falsely accused of theft due to financial discrepancies thrown up by the flawed Horizon computerised accounting system.

More than 700 were prosecuted and several went to prison while others lost their homes and life savings trying to pay back the money the Post Office claimed was missing.

Many were unfairly ostracised from their communities, who believed they were criminals.

In 2009 Alan Bates decided to form the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (https://www.jfsa.org.uk/), uniting thousands of his colleagues to
fight to clear their names.

There were more than 700 prosecutions.

@Hmmph the first 3-4 yes but there were at least 2-3 Asian / black faces appearing at end of E1. With 15,000 POs I assumed that was fairly reflective of the overall sub post master demographic the times

I'd known about this through the BBC Radio series and Private Eye.

For me above all is the frustration that we'll never get a straight answer as to why hundreds of PO/Fujitsu employees sunk to such a level and the chances of any of them suffering like the SPM is none existent.

Shame on them all, even down to the Horizon helpline staff who lied and lied.
And to think it's probable none of this would have happened if the police had been involved - I believe the PO no longer bring private prosecutions.

When we hear of thefts of this nature from businesses and charities there's always a trail of fast cars, expensive holidays or gambling addiction as evidence. In these cases there was none. what beggars belief is how so few have broken ranks at the PO to at least try to explain how this group think overcame the bloody obvious - in fraud cases you follow the money. And in all these case there wasn't any to follow.

Yes the scenes of the people working at the horizon helpline were a bit baffling really. I mean they must have been lying too?

I know it's apples and oranges but it reminded me a bit of Hillsborough. A decades long fight for justice, ordinary people being disbelieved and blamed and a massive cover-up at the highest levels with nobody brought to justice.
This country is so corrupt in so many ways.

2 of the victims on This Morning it’s horrific!
One was sent to Holloway prison it’s unbelievable….justice needs to be served upon those at the top they should face a court what they did do ordinary individuals…

I said that to DH last night.

Ordinary people v huge public organisation

Grenfell too...

I watched all eps in one go last night. I am in my 30s now and do recall this being on and off in the news since my teens but not knowing much about it.

An interesting watch for many reasons but having previously worked in retail, the IT was one of them. The worst, most complicated till system I ever used was run by Fujitsu. No issues like the poor PO staff but I actually had some physical panic symptoms when the system was clearly shafting people on screen!

@LemonJeIIy Virgin TV are showing it in Ireland this week so have it recorded.
Fingers crossed it has subtitles.

I think people who are outraged by this - surely everyone who knows the story - should boycott the post office. I don't want to give them any of my money and now use Evri to post things.

The PO has said that if it had pay the amount of compensation owed it would go bust, so the government stepped in.

I think they should have to pay, should go bust and shouldn't use government money (i.e. taxpayers' money) to keep afloat.

Actions should have consequences and it is only right that they should go bust.

@Lilyargin Please think carefully about your boycott. Your actions are damaging precisely the people on whose behalf you are venting your outrage - that is the subpostmasters whose life savings are invested in the subpostoffices that they have bought and run. If Post Office goes bust then their investment is worthless and their savings have gone up in smoke.

It is also worth saying here as often mentioned, Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate organisations - a decision to use e.g. Evri instead of Royal Mail as a punishment on Post Office does not make sense.

Yes, there was some lying going on. "You are the only person having problems" was a common line, although I think it was used more by Post Office's "investigators" (who didn't do anything that could be called a decent investigation). There was also rampant racism - "another Patel on the fiddle" was apparently a common comment amongst helpline staff.

I watched two episode last night and was totally shocked. Both myself & DH worked for POL from late 90's to redundancy in 2016 on the cash collection/delivery side of the business. DH was often sent with the security vans to 'defund' post offices( without ever being told why, just get the money out) and it was PV decision to force redundancies on that side of the business too. I hate her as we both lost our jobs, but thats nothing compared to these poor postmasters had to go through. Will watch the other two eposides later as it is compelling drama but pleased I dont work there any longer.! Corrupt as fucK!

You make a very good point @GoldenMalicious

I know several have binged all episodes

But this is a tv paced thread

All 4 are on over this week

So e2 is on tonight

I have known about these cases for a long time and have followed developments. One of the cases I recall was a lovely lady on Jeremy Vine who was convicted, sent to prison and had to give birth to her child handcuffed to the bed. I believe the child was only allowed to stay with her a short time. She was clearly devastated and it has always stuck with me as to how she could be fairly compensated.

What I don’t understand is why all the convictions have not been quashed and compensation paid?

DH used to buy Computer Weekly. So ive known about this for years through that and Private Eye. MSM ignored it until the last few years

I know they were lying about the line about it not happening to anyone else.
But just the conversations on the helpline with the helpline people saying just put a number in front of it and it works out, and things like that. It just seemed so strange.
I just would have thought there were ordinary people working on Horizon helpline? Like IT department? But surely those ordinary people would have had to be in on it as well?

So re episode 1 , apart from any shock at the events ( which I posted earlier )

Entirely about the drama , I thought Toby Jones was fantastic and he can play the little man ( everyman ) ( I think he is so versatile he can play quite the opposite ) & Also it was a while before I recognised Lesley Nicol . Alex Jennings is always good.

So this is purely about the drama and actors but because it was so good it may be that people who are watching it as a drama who and were not previously aware of the circumstances may see the circumstances

And for me who was not aware

Here I think ( sorry if posted before ) - continuing in to 2024.
https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/public-hearings-timeline

The evidence suggests they were not the most competent people and were following a script. We may find out more from the current inquiry.

As for being "in on it", the Fujitsu employees were doing as they were told and/or defending their employer. Many of them weren't aware that their actions were leading to subpostmasters being wrongly convicted. Those that were aware seem to have believed that the subpostmasters must be guilty.

The help line seems so odd! Do this to correct it …which was lies …and added to the issue! It is shameful 🙈

Surely the very fact they are calling a helpline says there is an issue? I mean okay, a one off issue with one or two terminals, but numerous calls and numerous terminals must suggest an issue?

I'll watch it on catchup, i remember the earlier news reports.

This @educatingrati

If many are calling then surely obvious a problem