Mr Bates vs The Post Office has rapidly become the drama of 2024 with nine million people already having watched it, and with it now available in the US and Australia there's no reason to miss out.
The scandal involving one of the UK's biggest institutions and more than 500 people wrongly accused of defrauding is brought to the small screen for a powerful drama that aims to set the record straight. With a brilliant cast including BAFTA Television Award winners Toby Jones (Detectorists) and Monica Dolan (Appropriate Adult), Mr Bates vs The Post Office comprises four emotional episodes.
You can watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office for FREE in the UK on ITVX and PBS in the US. But don't worry if you're on holiday while it's on because you can watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office on ITVX from anywhere with a VPN.
UK: ITVX (free)
US: PBS
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
After the Post Office introduced its expensive new Horizon IT system at the start of the century, sub postmasters and postmistresses up and down the UK began to be accused of causing financial discrepancies that suggested large sums of money were being lost or stolen.
Fired, humiliated and criminalized for their apparent involvement, 555 of the prosecuted personnel came together under the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance to try and clear their name, taking the complaint to the highest courts in the land.
Jo Hamilton (Dolan), Lee Castleton (Will Mellor), Michael Rudkin, (Shaun Dooley), Saman Kaur (Krupa Pattani) and the eponymous Alan Bates (Jones) are all among the accused who have to fight hammer and tong against a formidable foe owned by British government itself.
Penned by Gwyneth Hughes (The Girl) and directed by James Strong (Vigil), it will no doubt clean up at award ceremonies this year including at the BAFTAs.
The drama has been so successful at raising awareness about the scandal that it has caused a huge public outcry and led to debates in parliament. There's now huge pressure on the Prime Minister to get the victims compensated and cleared as quickly as possible.
Here's how to watch Mr. Bates vs The Post Office online, in full and for free. Continue reading for all the information you'll need to stream all four episodes, no matter where you are in the world.
How to watch Mr. Bates vs The Post Office in the UK for free
How to watch Mr. Bates vs The Post Office in the US
In the US, you can watch Mr Bates vs the Post Office for free on PBS on Sundays or via the PBS App.
If you're outside the US and looking to stream as you normally would, you can read below for how to use a VPN to do exactly that.
How to watch Mr. Bates vs The Post Office from anywhere with a VPN
You can watch Mr. Bates vs The Post Office on ITVX by using a VPN — no matter where you are in the world.
Normally a streaming service will know where you are trying to tune in from and block you if you're not in the right country but a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an app that hides your location. That means you can access your usual sports and entertainment services even while you're traveling abroad.
Our favorite VPN is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar. There's a helpful guide to the best VPN services on TechRadar if you'd like a deeper read.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
What was the Mr. Bates vs The Post Office release date?
Mr. Bates vs The Post Office aired in January in the UK and is available to stream on ITVX.
In the US, the show began airing April 9 with the finale set for Sunday, April 28.
All you need to know about Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Mr. Bates vs The Post Office trailer
What is the cast for Mr. Bates vs The Post Office?
- Toby Jones as Alan Bates
- Julie Hesmondhalgh as Suzanne Sercombe
- Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton
- Will Mellor as Lee Castleton
- Amy Nuttall as Lisa Castleton
- Katherine Kelly as Angela Van den Bogerd
- Lia Williams as Paula Vennells
- Alex Jennings as James Arbuthnot
- Ian Hart as Bob Rutherford
- Clare Calbraith as Gina Griffiths
- Shaun Dooley as Michael Rudkin
- Krupa Pattani as Saman Kaur
- Amit Shah as Jasgun Singh
- Lesley Nicol as Pam Stubbs
- Pip Torrens as Mr Justice Fraser
- Isobel Middleton as Kay Linnell
- Colin Tierney as Martin Griffiths
- Clare Calbraith as Gina Griffiths
- Ifan Huw Dafydd as Noel Thomas
- John Hollingworth as James Hartley
- Adam James as Patrick Green QC
What was the British Post Office scandal?
Described as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, hundreds of innocent subpostmasters 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.
It took years for the accused to fight their case and eventually see their convictions overturned. A group legal action was eventually awarded £57.75 million in compensation.
Who is the real Mr. Bates?
Alan Bates was one of the subpostmasters caught up in the British Post Office scandal.
The show's screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes describes Bates as "an unassuming bloke who ran an unassuming post office in the seaside resort of Llandudno... extraordinary, indomitable, a true British hero".
Having originally reported errors with the Post Office's new Horizon IT system, he subsequently had his contract revoked resulting in him and his partner Suzanne losing their £65,000 investment.
He then became one of the co-founders of and driving forces behind the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance.
He said of Mr Bates vs The Post Office: "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."
