Production begins on Post Office scandal drama
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A new drama based on the real story of how dozens of sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly accused of fraud, theft and false accounting, is now in production.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office is a 4 x 60 series from Little Gem in association with ITV Studios for delivery to ITV; it is written by seasoned TV scribe Gwyneth Hughes.
Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alex Jennings and Ian Hart are among the cast. The executive producers are Patrick Spence Hughes, Natasha Bondy and Ben Gale; James Strong directs with Chris Clough producing.
Deemed one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, it was in fact the Post Office’s defective IT accounting system that caused many of the wronged workers to be prosecuted, with some imprisoned for crimes that they hadn’t committed.
Following the landmark Court of Appeal decision to overturn their criminal convictions, dozens of the sub postmasters and postmistresses were eventually exonerated on all counts as they battled to finally clear their names over a period of more than ten years.
Writer Hughes said at the time of the commissioning news: “I’ve been talking for a while now to some of the people whose lives were turned upside down by this appalling business. I find it just astonishing, and deeply troubling, that this could have happened in my country, and I confess it’s shaken my confidence in British justice.
“The sub postmasters at the heart of the fightback are such a lively, interesting and indomitable bunch. They never gave up, and I’m honoured to be telling their stories.”
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