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US
Vs UK - In the United Kingdom, Colonel Childers would be more likely to
be convicted of murder, based on the flawed testimony of several
witnesses, and a total lack of exonerating evidence. In the case of the British
Bulldog, in exactly the same way, the State saw to it that the
evidence needed to defend, was never provided to the defence. In the UK,
the state controls the crime scene and Legal Aid does not (did not)
extend to obtaining independent forensic medical evidence. Barrister
Julian Dale, and Solicitor Timothy Stirmey confirmed that to the
defendant. Later, barristers in England went on strike because Legal Aid
fees were so low, they were unable to defend their clients. The King (or
Queen) as Head of State, is responsible for ensuring that their subjects
are treated fairly, with a government that provides an effective
administration. We think this true story will show it to be anything but
the case in a Britain that is seriously in debt, hence, looking to save
money by denying those accused of serious crimes, with a viable defence.
That is aside from the corruption in local government, and collusion by
Wealden and Sussex police, working with the CPS to rig the deck.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a four-part British television drama series for ITV, written by Gwyneth Hughes, directed by James Strong and starring an ensemble cast led by Toby Jones. The series is a dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal, a miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted (privately and publicly) for theft, false accounting or fraud due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It was broadcast on four consecutive days from 1 January 2024.
The series won a Peabody Award at the 85th ceremony. It won the 2025 BAFTA award for Limited Drama
SYNOPSIS
A faulty IT system called Horizon, developed by Fujitsu, creates apparent cash shortfalls that cause Post Office Limited to pursue prosecutions for fraud, theft and false accounting against a number of subpostmasters across the UK. In 2009, a group of these, led by Alan Bates, forms the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. The prosecutions and convictions are later ruled a miscarriage of justice at the conclusion of the Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd judicial case in
2019.
CAST
Toby Jones as Alan Bates
Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton
Julie Hesmondhalgh as Suzanne Sercombe
Alex Jennings as James Arbuthnot
Ian Hart as Bob Rutherford
Lia Williams as Paula Vennells
Will Mellor as Lee Castleton
Amy Nuttall as Lisa Castleton
Susan Brown as Min Howard
Krupa Pattani as Saman Kaur
Amit Shah as Jas Singh
Colin Tierney as Martin Griffiths
Clare Calbraith as Gina Griffiths
Shaun Dooley as Michael Rudkin
Lesley Nicol as Pam Stubbs
John Hollingworth as James Hartley
Adam James as Patrick Green QC
Katherine Kelly as Angela van Den Bogerd
Isobel Middleton as Kay Linnell
Ifan Huw Dafydd [cy] as Noel Thomas
Mark Arends as Richard Roll
Andrew Havill as Stuart Wentworth QC
Pip Torrens as Lord Justice Fraser
Nadhim Zahawi as himself
James Naughtie as himself
Dana Haqjoo as Behrouz Heydari
PRODUCTION
Written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by James Strong, the series was produced by Chris Clough for Little Gem and ITV Studios. Filming began in May 2023 and took place in Llandudno, Conwy, and Tatsfield, Surrey. Former member of the Business Select Committee Nadhim Zahawi had a small role, playing himself.
Journalist Nick Wallis, who has written extensively about the scandal, was a consultant on the series.
FINANCIAL LOSSES
Although the series had been watched by an estimated 13.5 million people as of late-April 2024, ITV said it had made a loss of around £1 million on the production. Kevin Lygo, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, partially blamed the lack of international appeal in the subject matter for these losses.
BROADCAST
The series was shown on ITV1 from 1 to 4 January 2024, and was released in full on ITVX on the same date. In the United States, the series premiered on PBS's drama anthology Masterpiece in April 2024. In Australia, the series premiered in February 2024 on Channel Seven. In Germany and France the series was shown on Arte in March 2025 and was available on the Arte Mediathek until 24 June 2025.
Immediately after the final episode, ITV broadcast a documentary Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story.
RECEPTION
The series was well received by critics and awarded four out of five by reviewers in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. Martin Robinson, writing in the Evening Standard, said: "The Kafka-esque situation is thoroughly humanised by the performances". On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 16 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Dramatizing a grave injustice with terrific acting and plain-spoken righteousness, Mr Bates vs the Post Office shines much-needed light on a national scandal." On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on seven critics.
ACCOLADES
The series won the Jury Prize at the 2024 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. The series won the Judges' Prize at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March 2024. At the National Television Awards in September 2024, Toby Jones won the Drama Performance, and the series won the Impact Award and New Drama. That month, the series won the Sky Arts Award for Television. At the 2024 Venice TV Awards, it received the award for Best TV Series.
It was nominated for Best Limited Series at the 30th Critics' Choice Awards in February 2025. The series was awarded a special recognition award at the 2025 Broadcast Awards and "Jo watches as the numbers on her screen increase as she is on the phone to Horizon IT support" won TV Moment of the Year. The series was also nominated for Best Drama Series or Serial. That scene was also nominated for Most Memorable moment at the 2025 British Academy Television Awards. It was nominated for Best Single Drama or Limited Series, and Monica Dolan was nominated for Leading Actress at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March 2025. That month, it was nominated at the 2025 British Academy Television Awards for Best Limited Drama, with Toby Jones and Monica Dolan nominated in the Leading Actor and Actress categories. At the ceremony, ITV will be awarded the BAFTA television special award for commissioning the series. BAFTA television committee chair Hilary Rosen said: “This is public service television at its best”.
IMPACT
The series was credited for igniting public interest in the scandal and led to demands for the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells to have her CBE withdrawn; a petition that accrued more than 1.2 million signatures.
Vennells issued a statement on 9 January 2024 that she would "return [her] CBE with immediate effect". However, this had no formal and immediate effect, as only the monarch can revoke or annul honours. Vennells’s appointment as CBE was formally revoked by King Charles III on 23 February for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".
Such was the impact of the drama that the scandal became a major news story, and on the following day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted subpostmasters and said there would be a "new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected".
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said £1bn had been budgeted for compensation payments. Lead actor Toby Jones spoke of being "very proud" of the impact the drama had, telling BBC Radio Stoke that "there have been many dramas in the past that have had a political influence, but not quite as urgently and directly as this" and that the drama was "brilliantly dramatised by the writer and the fact that it was being spoken about in Parliament within three weeks is absolutely extraordinary."
CONSEQUENTIAL LEGISLATION
The Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Act 2024 received royal assent on 25 January, authorising compensation payments.
Another Act, the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024, was passed on 24 May, the Friday a week before Parliament was dissolved for the general election, and came into force the same
day. On 13 June a similar Act of the Scottish Parliament received royal assent to deal with offences that came within its legislative competence, coming into force the next day. These Acts quashed all convictions where–
- it was made before the Act came into force;
-
it was prosecuted in England and Wales by the Post Office or Crown Prosecution Service, or in Northern Ireland by the police, the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Public Prosecution Service, or in Scotland;
-
it was alleged to have been committed between 23 September 1996 and 31 December 2018;
-
it was for false accounting, fraud, handling stolen goods, money laundering, or theft, or in Scotland embezzlement, fraud, theft, or uttering, or for attempting, conspiring, encouraging, inciting, aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring any of those offences;
-
the defendant was operating a post office business or working in a post office, and the offence was alleged to have been carried out in connection with that work; and
-
the post office in question was using Horizon at the time.
The non-Scottish Act made an exception for offences which had been considered by the relevant Court of Appeal. The two Acts also ordered records of cautions and other alternatives to conviction relating to relevant offences to be expunged.
MOVIE INFO
An
Innocent Man 1989
Atonement
2007
Carrington
VC (Court Martial) 1954
Django
Unchained 2012
Double
Jeopardy 1999
Enemy
of the State 1998
Fatal
Attraction 1987
John
Wick 2014
Gladiator
2000
Mr
Bates Vs The Post Office 2024
Rambo
First Blood 1982
Rules
of Engagement 2000
Sisu
2023
The
Bonfire of the Vanities 1990
The
Crown, Netflix 2013 - 2023
The
Fugitive 1993
Yes
(Prime) Minister 1980 - 1988
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