MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE
ITVX
You could be forgiven for thinking that greeting the New Year with a drama about the Post Office Horizon scandal – in which 3,500 sub-postmasters were wrongly blamed for a computer system’s financial errors – might be up there with a nice long chat with your accountant about your tax position. Happily, you’d be wrong.
This quietly compelling four-parter turns out to be an addictive (I binged it) exploration of a miscarriage of justice that, nearly 25 years on, is still unfolding.
Pictured (L-R): Julie Hesmondhalgh as Suzanne, Toby Jones as Alan Bates and Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton
The Mr Bates of the title is Alan (the brilliant Toby Jones), a mild-mannered superhero of a sub-postmaster in Llandudno who, backed by his partner Suzanne (Julie Hesmondhalgh), becomes convinced the Post Office’s accusations of discrepancies in his accounting are due more to Fujitsu’s new computer system than his ability to balance the books.
As Alan and Suzanne lose their business (‘no job, no income, nowhere to live, all our hopes, dreams and savings down the pan,’ says Suzanne) and take early retirement, Alan stashes his paperwork in the attic at their cottage, convinced that ‘it can’t just be us, can it?’
It can’t. If Mr Bates is the brains of this drama, then Jo Hamilton (fabulous Monica Dolan) is its heart. A sub-postmistress who admits she is ‘no good with computers’, Jo is an early victim of the Post Office’s shockingly ruthless approach to the unfolding problem.
While PO HQ trotted out corporate platitudes about the importance of its staff, behind it all there was a frankly Big Brother-esque approach.
In fact, make that Big Sister; two of the most senior execs at the PO between 2012-2019, when the scandal erupted, were women – CEO Paula Vennells (Lia Williams) and ‘Head of Partnerships’ (whatever that means) Angela van den Bogerd (Katherine Kelly).
Gobsmackingly, Vennells still has her CBE while van den Bogerd was hired as ‘Head of People’ at the Football Association of Wales.
There’s a fine ensemble cast. Ian Hart and Alex Jennings play forensic accountant Bob Rutherford and James Arbuthnot MP, whose tireless attempts to expose the scandal are ultimately successful.
Elsewhere, Shaun Dooley, Lesley Nicol (Downton’s Mrs Patmore) and Will Mellor help bring Gwyneth Hughes’s empathetic screenplay to vivid life.
Kathryn Flett (picutred) binge-watched Mr Bates VS The Post Office – the ITV drama exploring the scandal in which 3,500 sub-postmasters were wrongly blamed for a computer system’s financial errors
If your understanding of the details of the 2019 court case that saw Mr Bates’s legal victory over the Post Office is sketchy, this series will have you seething. Despite 3,500 accusations, 700 convictions and four suicides, nobody at the PO or the Horizon IT creator Fujitsu has ever faced criminal charges. Happy New Year!
Backstabbing with bells on!
THE TRAITORS
Wednesdays-Fridays, BBC1
Presenter Claudia Winkleman (pictured) is perfectly cast in the BBC’s The Traitors, which has returned for a second series
Arriving relatively unhyped last year, The Traitors became a stealthy superhit for the Beeb, gathering devoted fans as much by word-of-mouth as social media saturation. I’d tuned in half-heartedly only to become addicted to an oddly charming bout of ruthless venality and relentless backstabbing.
If you’re new to the format (where have you been?), here’s the lowdown: 22 strangers arrive at a gorgeous castle in the Scottish Highlands and are dubbed the ‘Faithful’ – but among their ranks are secretly a few contestants chosen by (perfectly cast) host Claudia Winkleman to be ‘Traitors’.
Their goal is to ‘murder’ the Faithful and win a prize fund of up to £120k accumulated en route by various Survivor-style tasks.
If the Faithful manage to identify the Traitors correctly and eliminate them at the nightly ‘Banishment’ they share the prize – but if any Traitors make it to the final they can take it all. It’s a supersized bells-and-whistles game of wink murder.
Last year, Faithful contestants Aaron, Hannah and Meryl won – but I’ll bet it’s the charismatic Traitors Wilfred, Amanda and Kieran you still remember. This year’s motley bunch look just as intriguing; I’ll be keeping a close eye on sweet-faced squaddie/Traitor Harry…
A riotous refurb
Amanda Holden and Alan Carr present Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job
I love Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job (Fri, BBC1), in which Amanda Holden and Alan Carr buy derelict Italian houses, then renovate and sell them, with profits going to charity.
This year the unlikely developers have bought a particularly crumbly three-storey house in Tuscany, and in between the refurb we get to enjoy the warm, witty banter that signposts a genuine friendship between two likeable presenters. I’m in…
There’s ‘cosy crime’, then there’s daytime telly’s Father Brown (Fri, BBC1), which makes Midsomer Murders look like Reservoir Dogs. In episode one, Brown (Mark Williams) witnesses a death at the village fête-worse-than-death: deadly nightshade is deployed in a spinach-eating competition.
Never mind the good father’s powers of detection, that the cast of a show that teeters on the edge of parody remain straight-faced long enough to deliver their lines is the show’s real miracle.
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