'Mr Bates vs The Post Office has ignited the fury of a nation'
Screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes has ignited the fury of a nation.
Her stunning TV docudrama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, was this week greeted with boiling rage by critics and viewers alike. In four gruelling episodes, she exposed the persecution of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses that lasted decades.
Thousands were wrongfully accused of fraud after millions went missing due to the failure of a £1billion Japanese computer system. Hundreds were convicted and went to jail. Four took their own lives. The dark story of the Great Post Office Robbery-That-Never-Was cried out to be told.
The facts were well-known, but only Gwyneth, 69, rose to the challenge of giving it a human face.
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“The story has never had the understanding it needed, partly because it involves people who are not professional, not urban, not glamorous, conservative with a small ‘c’… a group that nobody cares about at all,” quiet-spoken Gwyneth told me at her home near Skipton, North Yorks. “ITV decided it was too big for a documentary, and knowing I’d done a lot of dramas based on true stories, they rang me. I said, ‘No, I don’t think so – yes!’”
She chose to focus on eight of the many hundreds of victims and illustrated their descent into despair after Post Office bosses accused them of fraud or false accounting.
“I didn’t realise how involved I’d get with it and these people’s lives,” admits Gwyneth, who has a string of TV hits to her name such as Vanity Fair and Tom Jones.
The real Jo Hamilton (Peter Macdiarmid/LNP)“They were desperate to tell their stories. They wanted vindication. Gina Griffiths [the widow of Martin, played by Clare Calbraith] was my first interviewee, and I didn’t really know what to ask. But she was kindness itself. They all were. We have become friends, and I was telling the story of friends. What happened to these people is heart-breaking so I am not surprised the nation is up in arms. I’ve been up in arms for three years.
“People are really taking it personally… it’s making them cry. They see themselves in it, like Jo Hamilton [played by Monica Dolan], being treated abominably by faceless bureaucrats. This has something to do with our idea of Britain. It’s not just the terrible unfairness – that happens all over the world – we think our country is better than that. We have discovered differently. This cannot happen here, but it can. I’ve had people saying, ‘Can you tell my story?’ That’s the thing about drama. You’re with the person, identify with them wholly.”
That’s where this drama scores over documentaries – investigative reporting is brought to life, with Toby Jones as the hero. He asks at the end, “It’s not over, is it?” It isn’t. How about a sequel, Ms Hughes?
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