“The Whole Country Is Angry Now”: How ITV’s Post Office Drama “Tapped Into” Frustrations With The “Politics Of The Moment” & Gripped The UK
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: With the almost impossible-to-believe Post Office scandal bedecking the front of most UK national newspapers this week, the writer of the ITV smash drama about the saga has said it “tapped into” frustrations with the “politics of the moment.” Gwyneth Hughes, who penned the Toby Jones-starring four-parter, said the team has been “blown away” and “completely surprised” by the cut-through and media attention generated by Mr Bates vs The Post Office, as she detailed the legal quagmire and years of gaining people’s trust they went through to get the show from inception to screen.
She was speaking in the hours before a motion attempting to put the scandal right was debated by dozens of lawmakers in parliament.
A week ago, most of the British public probably hadn’t heard of what is now considered one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice in the nation’s recent history, but it is now front and center on most newspapers, websites and radio programs out there, with real, tangible results hopefully incoming.
The Post Office scandal saw hundreds of British sub-postmasters wrongly accused and many prosecuted for theft, false accounting and fraud due to discrepancies that showed up in their accounts, which it has since been proved was the fault of a computer system called Horizon introduced around two decades ago.
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