This is a dramatisation based on real events, so things that might otherwise be treated as spoilers are unmarked on this page.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a British Miniseries from Little Gem and ITV, which first aired in January 2024. It's written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by James Strong.
The four-part series is a Docudrama adapting the story of the legal fight between the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and Post Office Limited.
The story is mainly told from the perspective of Alan Bates (Toby Jones), the founder of JFSA, and his partner Suzanne Sercombe (Julie Hesmondhalgh). But with a strong focus on other subpostmasters and subpostmistresses and on the investigation team.
In the United Kingdom, the postal service is run by Post Office Limited, a privatised corporation separate from the Royal Mail, which only delivers letters and parcels. Individual post offices are run by subpostmasters who, despite their official-sounding titles, are actually self-employed franchisees who are contractually obligated to cover any discrepancies out of their own pockets.
In 1998, the Post Office rolled out a new, billion-pound computer system called "Horizon" from Fujitsu. Problems almost immediately began cropping up, with subpostmasters and subpostmistresses reporting accounting shortfalls amounting to tens-and-hundreds-of-thousands of pounds. The helpline they were told to contact proved to be of no help and each was invariably told that they were the only one with such problems, accused of fraud, and relentlessly prosecuted.
However, in 2003, the Post Office comes after subpostmaster Alan Bates. Rather than accepting fault or taking a plea bargain, Bates refuses to back down when auditors come to kick him out of his and his partner Suzanne Secombe's seaside store in Llandudno, Wales, after accusing him of false accounting. Feeling that he was unjustly treated by the Post Office and knowing that the problem is in the Horizon system, he reaches out to other wrongfully accused subpostmasters and subpostmistresses — finding out that the issue is far more widespread than even he believed — and rallies them together to form the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and fight against the system.
Soon they begin a legal battle, initially with the assistance of James Arbuthnot, MP (played by Alex Jennings) and the fictional Bob Rutherford (Ian Hart), an independent investigator who represents the real forensic account firm Second Sight who were appointed by the Post Office Limited to handle the case.
On the Post Office Limited side, Lia Williams plays Paula Vennells
, the former chief executive officer of Post Office Limited, and Katherine Kelly as Angela van den Bogerd, the Post Office Limited head of partnerships and later business improvement director.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office contains examples of:
- Arc Words: "You're the only one having this problem" - the Blatant Lies from the Horizon helpline.
- As Himself: Nadhim Zahawi appears as himself, questioning those involved in the Post Office Scandal.
- Based on a True Story: In general, but an actual on-screen statement appears at the beginning of episode three, saying that the episode is based on a true story but that some names had been changed.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Alan Bates appears soft-spoken and friendly, but he possesses unrelenting courage and determination to prove that he and the other subpostmasters were wronged and has no qualms about going after a powerful national institution like the Post Office.
- Companion Show: Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story is a Documentary produced to accompany the miniseries.
- The Determinator: It takes years before the subpostmasters see even the slightest movement towards seeing justice done. Many despair and question if it's worth going on but they're always convinced to stay the course by the quiet determination of Alan Bates, who doggedly appeals to lawyers and politicians until they'll listen and take up the cause.
- The Dragon: Angela Van den Bogerd acts as Paula Vennells' enforcer and mouthpiece on a number of occasions, most notably in the final decisive court case where she is the one who faces a grilling rather than Paula herself (presumably because the latter knew it would be disastrous for her to testify under oath).
- Driven to Suicide: Saman Kaur attempts to take her life due to her own sense of shame and hate being directed at her by the local press, but is rescued by her husband Jas. Sadly Martin Griffiths does die by suicide a few days before his appeal meeting against his contract termination by throwing himself in front of a bus.
- Establishing Character Moment: The very first scene has Alan Bates blocking the Post Office's so-called investigators from entering his store, as he is still in charge until his contract ends. Then they call the police but he just explains the police officers that the Post Office has no evidence whatsoever of his alleged crimes, forcing its employees to relent and come back the following day. In just a couple of minutes, we not only see that Alan Bates is a man who knows his rights and the law and is completely unafraid of the Post Office but also that the Post Office bosses are not actually interested in investigating what´s happening and finding the truth, they just send their men to threaten innocent people.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Alan Bates is depicted living in a pleasant cottage. The producers acknowledged that this would have been beyond the real Bates' means and that he actually lived in a modest flat at the time of the series' events.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Subverted with the bespectacled Bob Rutherford; at first, Alan and the audience have reason to fear he's been hired by the Post Office to hide and explain away any evidence of wrongdoing, but it becomes clear quite quickly that not only is he genuinely committed to finding out the truth, he is also a warm-hearted and sympathetic man who sides with the subpostmasters completely as soon as it becomes clear that they're in the right.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: On two separate occasions, the Post Office hires independent experts (the Second Sight forensic accountancy firm and an unnamed legal team) in the hope of proving themselves right. After conducting their investigations, both groups separately conclude that the Post Office doesn't have a leg to stand on, and their reports stating as much are used against the Post Office in court.
- There's also the chain of suspicious emails that strongly indicates Vennells knew/suspected that there was a backdoor into the Horizon computers and was trying to get her underlings to create false evidence she could use in her favour (which get used against her in court), the decision by someone at Fujitsu to try to silence a union member who saw the backdoors by using them against him (which provoked him into telling Alan and co everything he'd seen and put them on the path to finding evidence of wrongdoing) and the Post Office demanding the judge recuse himself and accusing him of bias against them (which Alan and his lawyers laughingly agree is such a phenomenally stupid move that it was probably either ordered by a panicking board of directors or a desperate play to drag out the case longer)
- Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence: For the first four episodes whenever the JFSA get a hold of documents through freedom of information requests or the investigation team requests access the documents are either redacted, doctored, or missing. The Fujitsu UK headquarters also "conveniently" doesn't have any record of Michael Rudkin's visit on the day he shown its employees accessing subpostmasters Horizon accounts. Thankfully he kept his invite email.
- Interrupted Suicide: Saman Kaur attempts suicide by stabbing herself in the stomach due to the shame she feels from appearing in the local press as having stolen old people's money. Luckily her husband Jas Singh walks in on her doing so and calls an ambulance. Even when she is found Not Guilty she still experiences trauma and stress she's still hated by the community.
- Karma Houdini: The people who pushed the unfair convictions, most notably Paula Vennells, don't seem to suffer any repercussions beyond the humiliation. However, as discussed under
Heartwarming in Hindsight, the series itself may have drawn enough attention to the scandal to change this in real life. - Miscarriage of Justice: The subpostmasters are innocent despite the insistence of the Post Office, who terrified many of them into either taking a Plea Bargain to avoid jail; or in rare cases, some subpostmasters did wind up doing jail time. Eventually at least 90 of these convictions were overturned. All to protect the "Post Office" brand. The real case that the series is based on was described in the press as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history".
- Never My Fault: Paula Vennells' final public statement in the series is carefully worded to make sure she ducks responsibility.
- Persecuting Prosecutor: The various private prosecutors we see acting on the Post Office's behalf are never given much characterisation, but (unless they're totally ignorant of the law and the cases they're presenting) they MUST know that the evidence against the people they're prosecuting is extremely flimsy and that they're only offering plea bargains because they wouldn't stand a chance in court.
- Plea Bargain: Several subpostmasters and mistresses took plea bargains to reduce their sentences or avoid jail. In particular Jo Hamilton accepted a plea bargain to be charged with fraudulent accounting rather than theft to avoid jail, especially as whilst she knew she never stole money intentionally she thought she was just making computing mistakes and blamed herself.
- Politician Guest-Star: Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi appears on the panel which interrogates the Post Office board. Justified, as he did so in real life too.
- Properly Paranoid: Alan Bates in particular, but also Lee Castleton who both kept paper records of their actual accounts and noticed their discrepancies despite Post Office Limited and in some cases the courts insisting otherwise.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike nearly all British politicians, who ignored the subpostmasters for years, James Norwich Arbuthnot, Member of Parliament and the House of Lords pledges himself to their cause after talking with Jo Hamilton in person and supports them every step of the way.
- Sinister Minister: Paula Vennells is a variation. We are reminded a few times that she is also a Church of England minister, but there is no indication that she is corrupt or incompetent in that role; all her wrongdoings are of the corporate, legal, and political variety, and her being a woman of the cloth doesn't really serve any plot point beyond making her hypocrisy more odious.
- Stern Old Judge: Pip Torrens as Mr Justice Fraser who firmly picks apart any discrepancies in testimonies, on screen we see this happen with Angela van Den Bogerd in particular who goes back on calling Horizon "robust" as the Post Office Limited has been insisting but then calls the system "clunky" which gets scrutinised. He is kindly however when a Fujistu whistle-blower is verbally stumbling on the witness stand and gives him a chance to gain confidence and firm up his statements.
- The other judges we see on screen fit the bill too; whether they are condemning Lee Castleton (partly because of his ignorance of court procedure), acquitting Saman Kaur (after berating the prosecutor for dragging the case on for three years despite tacitly admitting the crucial datapad was faulty), or absolutely blasting the Post Office and the wrongful convictions as "an affront to justice", they are all intimidating and serious older people.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: As Suzanne and Alan take a hike up a mountain together in the final scene of episode four the following captions are displayed:Twenty years after he lost his own post office, Alan Bates is still fighting for compensation for hundreds of other victims.
The Post Office blamed 3,500 subpostmasters for financial losses caused by Horizon.
700 were found guilty of crimes. 236 were sent to prison. Four subpostmasters took their own lives.
The Court of Appeal has so far overturned 93 wrongful convictions. And the Public Inquiry that Alan called for in 2009 is now underway.
But of the 555 allies who fought alongside him in the High Court, 18 died without seeing justice or full compensation.
No current or former Post Office manager has faced a criminal charge.
