Why did it fall to TV execs to fight for victims of the Post Office scandal?

Hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting may soon be ‘mass exonerated’… thanks, in the main, to an ITV mini-series. In Britain, it sometimes takes a drama to shine a light on miscarriages of justice

The emotional final scenes of ITV’s hit drama series, ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’ (ITV )

MPs are saying that it is time to exonerate the sub-postmasters and mistresses whose lives were wrecked by the Post Office scandal that saw these pillars of the community up and down the country falsely accused of fraud, theft and false accounting. Some of them are, of course, no longer living, having taken their own lives.

Ministers have met to discuss the matter. Rishi Sunak has intervened, saying he would “strongly support” any review that looked into revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells’ CBE in the wake of the Horizon scandal. One of his frontbenchers said that all workers wrongly convicted in the scandal should be exonerated.

The police are now looking at potential offences related to the prosecutions and investigations carried out by the Post Office, which initially denied any problems with its Horizon IT system, which was responsible for a string of greivous errors. They may include perjury, perverting the course of justice and, yes, fraud. The shoe could yet find itself on the other (manicured) foot. Wouldn’t that be rich?

But amid all the sound and fury, I have a question: why has it taken a TV drama to move the dial like this?

Mr Bates vs the Post Office is a hell of ride. One of the best things I’ve seen for quite some time, either on television or at the cinema. It is a testament to what the old ‘legacy’ broadcasters – ITV, in this case – can do when they put their minds to it. It is available to stream on ITVX, and you should. The four-part series is sometimes painful to watch. It will make you mad. But I guarantee you won’t be able to stop once you’ve started. Unless, of course, it makes you so cross that you break your screen. It’s quite possible. I very nearly did.

But the ground it covers is not new. This show, as good as it is, isn’t breaking fresh ground. The scandal has been written about, documented and reported on. There have already been questions in the House. Alan Bates, tha man at the centre of it played by Toby Jones, has been doggedly and publicly campaigning for years now, with a small army of battered, mistreated and abused men and women at his side.

So why are we still here? Why are miscarriages of justice still festering? Why the sudden movement? Why is Paula Vennells, the Post Office’s CEO while these events took place, still holding a CBE and enjoying the proceeds of her time in charge when people in her employ were having their lives ripped to shreds?

Shouldn’t ministers already have already met? Shouldn’t those wronged have long ago been exonerated? Of course they should. But this is not the first time something like this has happened, is it?

A couple of years ago, the creator of Call the Midwife told the Mirror that “there are still questions that need to be asked, and answered” about Britain’s nuclear testing programme and the horrific impact on the veterans of it. This came after that show featured the issue – and then returned to it (a rare event).

Medals for those “who made a unique contribution to the UK’s security” were ultimately awarded. But it is interesting to note that in a parliamentary debate last November, Labour’s Rebecca Long-Bailey was still lamenting how the “merry-go-round of confusion goes round and round, month after month, with every question asked and response received”.

The heartbreaking Hillsborough drama Anne was screened after a measure of justice had been secured for those left bereaved by the crush that developed in the ground before the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in which 96 people died. The disaster was followed by one of the most shameful episodes on the part of the British establishment. Cover-up, denial, obfuscation, you name it.

A fresh inquest was ultimately held, and a verdict of unlawful killing secured. The Hillsborough Independent Panel was set up and reported. But only after a long and grinding struggle engaged in by the relatives of those caught up in the tragedy.

And as the drama noted at its conclusion, “no one has served a moment’s jail time for unlawfully killing Kevin and 96 other people at Hillsborough”. That doesn’t look likely to change, even with the renewed spotlight the TV production shone on the affair.

There is a common thread in all of these these, and other scandals that impact on ordinary people as a result of the failings of the state and its actors, scandals which haven’t yet reached our TV screens but might yet do so.

The British establishment does not like to admit its mistakes, even those from years, sometimes from decades, ago. Its well-remunerated scions seem to delight in their baubles while collecting non executive directorships, seats on worthy bodies and consultancy fees, secure in the knowledge that they will be protected if their mistakes and misdeeds are ever given simiar airings.

Meanwhile, their victims are hung out to dry unless they can find dogged and single-minded campaigners like the estimable Mr Bates, in my view a much the more worthy recipient of a CBE than Ms Vennells. I imagine that he would much rather settle for a commodity that sometimes feels all too rare in Britain: justice.

If the fresh furore created by this drama does result in those whose names still carry unjust stains being exonerated, then so much the better. But that should already have happened. It should have happened long ago.