Mr Bates vs The Post Office ITV: Yorkshire actors Monica Dolan and Katherine Kelly and Harry Potter actor Toby Jones star in TV drama

Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Lia Williams, Alex Jennings, Ian Hart, Katherine Kelly, Shaun Dooley, Will Mellor, Clare Calbraith, Lesley Nicol, Amit Shah, and Adam James star in the new ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

It was written by acclaimed screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes (Tom Jones, Honour, Vanity Fair) and produced by ITV Studios and Little Gem.

The drama follows the true story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history; where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting due to a defective IT system. Many of the wronged workers were prosecuted, some were imprisoned for crimes they never committed, and their lives were irreparably damaged by the scandal.

Following the landmark Court of Appeal decision to overturn their criminal convictions, dozens of former sub postmasters and postmistresses have been exonerated on all counts as they battled to finally clear their names. They fought for more than 20 years, finally proving their innocence and sealing a resounding victory, but all involved believe the fight is far from over.

Between 2000 and 2015, the Post Office held thousands of its own sub postmasters and postmistresses liable for financial discrepancies thrown up by Horizon, a very expensive but unreliable computerised accounting system.

Even though warnings that the system was flawed, the Post Office relentlessly pursued the sub postmasters and postmistresses, telling many of them they were the only ones having problems with Horizon.

Of those affected by the faulty IT system, 736 were prosecuted, hundreds more lost livelihoods, homes, and life savings because they paid back money the Post Office claimed was missing.

Several were imprisoned, some while pregnant or with young children, and many were shunned by their communities. Some have since died before they could find any justice.

The drama will narrate how in 2009, a group of sub postmasters from across the UK decided enough was enough and formed the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance.

Alan Bates said: “Over the years a lot of words have been written about how lives have been wrecked by an out of control government organisation, however they have never come close to expressing the true horrors that have been inflicted on people.

“I think this drama is the first time anything has come close to getting across the suffering many of the victims have had to cope with.”

The drama premiered on Sunday, January 1 and will air its last episode on Thursday, January 4, 2024.