Rent Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office (2024)

A sledgehammer of a TV series, which prompted fury & demands for justice - Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office review by TB

Like a lot of people, I had heard/watched over the years the story of the Post Office sub-postmasters who were being accused of stealing & then being dragged through the courts & in some cases jailed, pretty much all of whom (obviously there has to be the caveat that there may have been 1 or 2 genuine cases,) were patently innocent. And to my great shame, it was never a story which gripped me in the way it has since it blew up, primarily because there have been so many other news stories which have taken the spotlight. You have to remember that the significant problems with Horizon started in 1999, so this has been going on for nearly 3 decades.

The series takes great care to look at a few of the cases which were the ones in the public eye/are the most well-known, whilst never neglecting to repeatedly draw attention to the many hundreds of others who were also facing this living hell of being accused of stealing/fraud by a gigantic corporation who it is very quickly & clearly established will do absolutely anything to implicate & convict people. Some of these tactics which the series shows are overtly done, such as harassing people by using special Post Office investigation teams who have their own legal powers to prosecute, separate from the standard criminal justice system (a unique right in this country.)

But perhaps even more powerfully for me were the subtle & even more nasty tricks that they (Post Office) would do, the main one being if they lost a case, they would keep appealing the verdict in order to bankrupt the other side, (don't forget that the Post Office had an unlimited legal fund, so could do this indefinitely,) until they either won or the victims simply gave up due to the trauma/stress/running out of money.

This series also deserves huge credit for showing starkly & at times in unflinching detail the total destruction of not only the financial but also the mental health of the hundreds of victims affected. Alan Bates is shown, and I have no doubt this is true having seen multiple interviews with him, as being a bulldozer who simply will not bend or cower in the face of this barrage of threats over many years. But people like him are very, very, very rare. The main group who ran sub-post offices were honest & extremely decent people who, if the computer said they had made a mistake, blamed themselves.

Over 4 episodes, we are taken through many of the significant milestones that happened: from the establishing of the Justice for Sub-Postmasters group with a few members, up to the momentus public enquiry & the total vindication of all of them, it is gripping & harrowing drama. It is a bit frustrating that there are a few events which were missed out which had been shown in the documentaries I had watched, but I also totally accept that with a case this big, condensing it into a taunt & gripping 4 episode 45 minute series means tough creative choices needed to be made. And I would much rather the fleshing out of individual trauma as opposed to more events which may have limited that impact.

Finally, the one thing this series does do is make you as the viewer furious. As is, seething, white-hot fury & rage. You watch as a huge group of the most decent people this country has, who wanted to serve their communities, are treated in the worst way possible, by an evil, duplicitous organisation who KNEW FROM THE START of the launch of the Horizon computer program that there was enormous issues with the system but still continued to roll it out & pursue totally innocent people caught up in it.

This is momentus, powerful & gripping drama, which prompted a sea-change in the UK. It also proves again why powerful drama is second to none at being the catalyst for real change & exposing miscarriages of justice. I wish the Sub-Postmasters the best in their continued fight.