Considered the greatest miscarriage of British justice, ‘Mr. Bates v. Post Office’ is a recreation of the fight that a group of officials maintained with the administration for more than 20 years so that their good name would be restored, the stolen money would be returned and the damage caused would be repaired.
The installation of a very expensive computer system in 2003 to control transactions in the United Kingdom’s post offices becomes a nightmare when a logical error causes those in charge of the offices to have to assume significant cash imbalances, even with criminal consequences.
The outrageous thing about the problem is that Correos, aware of the failure, did not acknowledge its fault and affirmed to each of those affected that it was not aware of other cases and that the Fujitsu system was “robust.” But the injustice does not stop there and The entity begins criminal proceedings against hundreds of affected people that lead many of them to ruin, to jail and in a few cases end in suicide.
The great success of the series is to humanize this fight of David against Goliath thanks to a series of endearing characters led by Alan Bates (Toby Jones), a submaster of the Post Office who does not accept the explanations and begins a legal battle to keep his name clean. The miniseries goes through several phases: social drama, conspiracy, personal drama and judicial thriller. And the spectator, who at all times identifies with the plaintiffs, witnesses with helplessness and rage how the impersonal machine of power destroys the lives of innocent people without any regard and using all the resources, which are not few, to hinder the investigations.
In addition to the great work of veteran Toby Jones, We must highlight the excellent cast: Monica Dolan (‘Pride’), Julie Hesmondhalgh (‘Broadchurch’), Will Mellor (‘Line of Duty’), Ian Hart (‘The Last Kingdom’)… who manage to restore faith in dignity in the face of justice that arrives late 20 years and that in no way compensates for the innumerable sufferings of the accused.
Is ‘Mr. Bates vs. Post Office’?
- Compresses two decades of struggle into four intense chapters
- An excellent cast led by Alan Bates
- He represents like no one else the unequal struggle of the individual against the State.
What other series are there to watch?
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