Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the astounding, but unfortunately real-life story of, as ITV puts it, "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history".
A group of subpostmasters – the self-employed business owners who ran Post Office branches across the country in the late Nineties – were wrongly accused of fraud and theft, and in many cases were successfully prosecuted for these crimes. Some of the subpostmasters received criminal records, were fined, lost their livelihoods, fell ill and were even imprisoned. Their lives were destroyed by the false assertions: people sold their houses, were separated from their families, died without ever achieving justice, and at least four took their own lives.
Now the story, and the subpostmasters' long campaign for justice, is being reimagined as a four part ITV drama, with Toby Jones playing Alan Bates, the man who spearheaded the years-long struggle.
"This is an enormously complex and vastly diverse story, which has now been made into a drama," said the real-life Bates. "It's not a factual documentary about what went on, it's a drama to engage people. So some things have had to be summarised – years have had to be chopped out because they have to take the plot forward.
"It couldn’t cover all of the human loss and suffering — there are hundreds and hundreds of people and families who have been affected. What I hope people will realise is that in many cases, even now, the real story is not finished. It’s still ongoing and there are more revelations coming out daily.”
Here is our breakdown some of the actors who are leading the cast in the upcoming series, which premieres on January 1, 2024.
Toby Jones plays Alan Bates
Toby Jones plays Alan Bates, the man who spearheaded the two-decade long justice campaign.
"In amongst all of the news that we hear daily, it felt like this particular scandal had been hiding in plain sight," said Jones to ITV. "I was aware that on occasion, I would hear ‘postmasters’ mentioned and truly, there is no other explanation for it, to my shame – I hadn’t understood the full severity of the story."57-year old Hammersmith-born Jones is a British acting legend, having starred in everything from Sally Potter's Orlando (1992) to The Hunger Games franchise (2012–2013). His credits include playing the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter franchise, starring in the award-winning screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and in the lovely comedy series Detectorists (2014-2022).
"I had said to Alan, ‘I’m not going to imitate you, but I need to be you enough to differentiate you, to show where you’re from and to root you in a specific context’," said Jones about playing Bates. "This was because Alan isn’t metropolitan like me, or from the south. He’s originally from Liverpool and has been living in Wales for some time. So, I talked to him about his roots, his work, the main events of his life, his routines.
"Secretly, I was trying to work out what drove him on, but he’s remarkably adept at obfuscating, at not giving any clues as to how he has come to do what he’s done. It’s a genuine humility that he has."
Julie Hesmondhalgh plays Suzanne Sercombe
Suzanne Sercombe is Alan's partner, and she will be played by Lancastrian Julie Hesmondhalgh, the actor best-known for her stint as Hayley Cropper in the Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014.
"I knew about the Post Office scandal and was incredibly interested in it. And to play a real person? I mean, it's everything that I would want from my career actually," said Hesmondhalgh to ITV. "The most satisfying jobs that I've done in my life have been telling stories that I really believe in, and that I feel shift people's perceptions about something or bring something to the forefront of people's minds in ways they hadn't considered before."
Julie Hesmondhalgh won a number of awards for playing Cropper, including a Royal Television Society award (2013) and two National Television Awards (1999, 2014). Since leaving the soap, Hesmondhalgh has featured in a number of series including Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Doctor Who and You & Me.
"Suzanne has, in lots and lots of ways, put her own life on hold and sacrificed huge amounts to this cause," said Hesmondhalgh. "I don't think she had a choice in that really, in that it happened to them. They didn’t cause it. But she's stood by him every step of the way, 100% unquestioningly."
Monica Dolan plays Jo Hamilton
Jo Hamilton, the subpostmaster at South Warnborough in Hampshire, is played by BAFTA-winning English actor Monica Dolan. "I just really hope that the public will connect with the subpostmasters as people, will see that this could be them," said Dolan to ITV. "I remember the real Jo Hamilton watching a few scenes and her saying, ‘It's gonna blow their pants off.’ And I think just possibly it might."
Monica Dolan has featured in a wide range of films over the last three decades, from Mark Romanek film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2010), to Kiss-Ass 2 (2013), to Carol Morley's mystery drama The Falling (2014) to The Dig (2021). She has had roles in TV series including Poirot, Midsomer Murders, Vanity Fair, A Very English Scandal and Talking Heads.
Speaking about Jo's story, Dolan said: "It was around that time that the Horizon computer system came in and so all of this — the shortfalls created by the system that were blamed on the subpostmasters and they were contractually obliged to pay off — started happening when she joined. So she kept thinking it was her. She remortgaged her house, she put money into it and got into huge debt. She wouldn’t even tell her family about it because she was so ashamed. She just kept ringing the helpline, but she wasn't getting help."
Lia Williams plays Paula Vennells
Lia Williams, the BAFTA-nominated actor now best-known for playing Wallis Simpson in The Crown, is playing Paula Vennells, the CEO of the Post Office at the time of the scandal. In the series she is depicted as a strong-willed, clever woman who had been brought in to modernise the Post Office.
"She’s a fascinating character because she was an ordained minister (she's left now), married with two boys, I believe," said Williams. "I tried to portray her with ambiguity, because I felt that that best served the script and the piece.
"It leaves the audience to decide what they think of her, rather than me ramming something down their throat. It was very important that I didn't present her as some evil monster when I don't truly know who she is or what was going on behind closed doors. We only know that she lost control of a situation that she had no idea how to manage."
Williams has won and been nominated for numerous awards over the years for her roles on stage and screen. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for playing Karen in The Revengers' Comedies in 1991, her first proper role on stage. She has starred in show including May 33rd (2003), Doc Martin (2009) and His Dark Materials (2019-2022).
"My understanding is that the writer Gwyn [Hughes] had to deal with Paula very carefully, because there were lawyers all over it," added Williams. "So the part that I played was mainly transcripts, pulled from emails and quotes directly onto the page."
Will Mellor plays Lee Castleton
Will Mellor, who is best-known for playing Gaz Wilkinson in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Warren Stamp in EastEnders, plays Lee Castleton, one of the wronged subpostmasters.
"Lee Castleton is what you’d class as an everyday guy," said Mellor to the ITV. "He’s just an average person, like most of these people are.
"He believes if he just goes to court, because he's been taken to court by his employer, he’ll be believed and listened to because he’s done nothing wrong. Well… when he leaves court, he owes over 300,000 pounds. And he's just completely broken, like all of them are really."
Since beginning his career in 1990, Mellor has starred in Hollyoaks (1995–1998, 2004), Casualty (2001–2003) and Broadchurch (2013) and has featured in EastEnders, Merlin, Agatha Christie's Marple, In the Club, No Offence and Coronation Street.
