The semi-fictional account of the Horizon scandal follows the efforts of a group of victims to get justice, with Toby Jones (Dobby of Harry Potter) leads the cast as Alan Bates, a real-life postmaster from North Wales who played a key role in the campaign to uncover the scandal. Bates is now a national treasure.
Alan Bates gives evidence via video to a UK parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.credit: AP
He was one of thousands of subpostmasters who were made by Horizon, a system created by Japan's Fujitsu and installed in 14,000 post offices, to make it look like money was missing from their branches.
Bates bought a post office in Craig-y-Don, Llandudno in 1998, investing £65,000 in the business. By 2003 it had closed, and Bates was accused of being £1,000 in debt. But he insisted that he did not owe a penny.
The story was first published in 2004 by Small Business Magazine computer Weekly, It has been widely covered for at least 15 years. But with a relentless news cycle and more people stopping reporting, true justice has not been achieved. Then, on the first day of the new year, millions watched the new prime-time drama. The show has now been watched by nearly 13 million people.
Polly Hill, ITV's head of drama, said the series had been commissioned because it was “a story that needed to be told”.
“Like everyone who watched the show, I couldn't believe what happened. We all wanted the drama to help bring this story to as many people as possible.
Talkback radio has been abuzz with anger for days, with more than 1.2 million people signing a petition to strip former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells of her central role. Fennells, who is played in the show by Leah Williams, announced days later that she would be relinquishing the honor bestowed upon her by the Queen in 2018.
Fujitsu office building in Bracknell, UK.credit: Bloomberg
Message to Watchman That seems to sum up the reaction of many across the country.
“As suspicion and anger grew, I saw it as revealing the lengths some senior executives and boards will go to protect their companies even when they know the lives of so many good, honest people are being ruined or ended,” John Beer of Farnham, Surrey, wrote.
Less than a week after the latest episode, the British government announced that hundreds of post office operators would be cleared by Parliament within months through legislation that would exonerate all those convicted in the scandal. This comprehensive acquittal is believed to be the first time Parliament has been asked to overturn the courts' ruling.
Fujitsu, the Japanese company that developed the Horizon system, is also under increasing pressure, with UK politicians hoping to recover some victim compensation costs from the company, which still has contracts worth billions of pounds with the British government.
“There has been a lot of commentary about how shameful it would take for a TV drama to make people sit up and take notice of this scandal. But that is what drama was invented to do,” Gwyneth Hughes, the series’ writer, told the BBC.
“It is a source of great pride for me that our team has managed to tame complexity and produce something that people can understand and care about as well.”
Hughes said the response to the series – which will be broadcast on the Seven Network in February – has been “absolutely extraordinary” but she believes the drama can do something news reports can't.
“Engage the audience with great performances, suspense, and catharsis, so they get to know the characters, care about them, and, yes, pay attention.”
Hughes said the victims of the scandal, whom she met during the writing process, managed to be “funny, warm and welcoming” even 25 years after their ordeal.
“These were ordinary British people, living ordinary British lives, until suddenly they weren't,” she said.
“Suddenly, they were called thieves and villains, trapped in a nightmare of false accusations and public humiliation. Innocent people, pillars of their communities, and what's worse is that each of them is told that they are the only ones with problems with Horizon's computer system.
The scandal has raised serious questions about Britain's legal system and whether its political class is deaf to the plight of ordinary people. The program's error had been known to the public for years, but most postmasters were still fighting for justice.
Many subpostmasters were from minority groups. A parliamentary inquiry, which began in 2021, found that as accounting problems arose, Post Office fraud investigators were asked to group suspects based on skin color and ethnic traits, including “Chinese/Japanese types,” and “dark-skinned European types.” and “Negro Types.” The Post Office apologized last year.
Postmaster Seema Misra was convicted in 2010 of stealing £74,000 and spent four months in prison. Her conviction was overturned in 2021. In her sworn statement she described how she would have killed herself if she had not been several weeks pregnant when she was sent to prison.
Misra was then attacked in the street, had to return home and her husband's taxi company foundered.
“You have ruined my life and the lives of my family,” she later wrote.
The real-life Bates, 69, who the British public now wants a knighthood, fought back tears on breakfast TV in the days after the show aired when the hosts told him that Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson had been sending him and his long-time pals. Frequent partner Susan Sercombe is on an all-expenses-paid vacation on Necker Island, the businessman's 30-hectare private island in the British Virgin Islands.
Bates said the new TV show has made a “huge difference” in his long-running campaign for justice because it “does a good job of exposing the suffering that people have been through.”
“I'm not surprised that the entire nation is affected by this,” he said.
But Bates is not done fighting yet, saying on Wednesday that he would reject the “draconian” and “ridiculous” compensation offered by the government after receiving about one-sixth of the amount he requested.
Betts was among more than 4,000 people told they would be eligible following their High Court appeal, in which a judge ruled Horizon contained “errors, errors and defects”.
They initially received £57.75 million in the settlement, which was reduced to £12 million or £20,000 each when deducting legal costs. The government established a compensation plan for these postmasters called a class action injunction. Interim payments have been made while claimants await an offer to make a final payment. But several hundred others whose convictions were overturned are not currently eligible for compensation.
“His Majesty’s Government’s interpretation may be ‘full and fair’, but in reality the offer is ridiculous, insulting and after all this time, yes, cruel,” Bates told the London newspaper. telegraph.
“I will certainly decline this offer of financial compensation. It is just a terrible way to treat human beings – and I have heard from many postmasters who have received similar ridiculous offers, while others are still waiting.
Neither the Post Office executive nor any Fujitsu employee has faced a criminal investigation, although London's Metropolitan Police said it was now investigating possible fraud to force postmasters to dig into their own funds to make up the alleged shortfalls.
The Post Office said it was “doing everything it can to right the wrongs of the past.”
But Bates said he won't be able to draw a line until the first 555, the group that filed the lawsuit, receives the financial compensation they are owed.
He told the BBC: “You will never be able to compensate people for what they have been through, you will never be able to repay people for all the years of suffering they have had to endure.” “But hopefully this will alleviate some of their problems in the future.”
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