Post Office made last-gasp bid to change TV drama which fuelled scandal, Mr Bates producer reveals
12 January 2024, 10:54 | Updated: 12 January 2024, 11:07
The Post Office tried to change the storyline of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the man behind the hit ITV drama has said.
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Producer Patrick Spence said that when he approached Post Office executives with the dramatisation they offered to cooperate in exchange for script amendments.
He told the Londoner “What they offered to do was to change our story to suit their purposes.
“They were obviously keen to change the narrative, but we had our facts and they couldn’t stop us.”
Read More: Post Office investigator says he ‘wasn’t told’ by bosses that anything was wrong with Horizon system
The four-part drama, which starred Toby Jones as former subpostmaster Alan Bates, tells the story of the Post Office Horizon scandal. The 1999 scandal saw 800 and 900 branch managers convicted after faulty Horizon accounting software, developed by Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing.
At least four people died by suicide after being wrongly accused of stealing thousands of pounds, and many lost their jobs and homes. Around 60 others died while waiting for compensation.
Mr Spence said that the script relies heavily on public documents and emails written by Post Office employees, including Paula Vennells who was CEO at the time of the scandal.
He said: the Post Office was “so litigious and ghastly that we couldn’t take the risk of inventing anything for fear that they would stop it from being transmitted”.
Since the drama was aired Ms Vennells has handed back her CBE and the government has moved to quash convictions of anyone caught up in the Horizon scandal.
He said: “These politicians who are jumping on the bandwagon to say look what we’re doing, they all had their chance for four years to do this, remember. If we hadn’t made the show, it wouldn’t be happening. Alan Bates’ view is it’s not over yet. It’s great what’s happening, but it’s not over yet.
"The end of this story has to be they all get their money."
