Mr Bates vs The Post Office: All of the real-life people behind the ITV drama

ok.co.uk:

Throughout the first week of January, ITV viewers at home have been gripped by fresh new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which followed the real life journey of several sub-postmasters who were wrongfully accused (and in some cases even charged) with stealing from the Post Office, thanks to a Horizon computer error.The show, which spanned across four nights in total, saw a star studded cast including Toby Jones, Will Mellor and Julie Hesmondhalgh bring the story to life, including their ongoing fight for justice and compensation for the hundreds of people that were still affected by the error.

In emotional scenes, fans saw the toll of the scandal with their own eyes, with several of the accused having lost their jobs, their homes and in some cases even having taken their own lives after struggling to cope with the mental toll of being wrongfully blamed for the error.

Here, we take a closer look at the real people behind the stories portrayed on screen… What is Mr Bates vs the Post Office about?

Mr Bates vs The Post Office, is a four-part mini series documenting the fight for justice from several post-office employees who were caught up in a scandal of the late 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.The scandal, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history, first began when the Post Office decided to incorporate a new computer system named Horizon in their branches.The software used began to cause accounting errors and wrongfully declared that hundreds of sub postmasters were in deficit, meaning their accounts didn’t balance and that money was missing.