ITV has confirmed that it is planning to follow the massive success of drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office with another true life miscarriage of justice story – this time about the infected blood scandal.
According to Deadline, BAFTA-winning scriptwriter Peter Moffat will pen the untitled drama, which is set to focus on one of the darkest periods in the NHS’s history; ITV dubs it the “biggest health scandal in our history.”
Set during the Seventies and Eighties, it will tell the story of haemophilia sufferers and those with other blood disorders who became infected with HIV and hepatitis due to being treated with contaminated blood, some of which was imported from prisons in the US.
For many of them, this was fatal: a 2022 report found that of the approximately 1,250 people that were infected with HIV, 75 per cent died. Of the 2,400 people infected with hepatitis C, at least 700 died.
The issue has also been in the news lately. Last year, an inquiry took place into how the scandal occurred, which will no doubt be addressed in detail in the series – including what doctors, politicians and pharmaceutical companies knew about the risks of treatment, and the consequences.
The series has also – unusually – been commissioned without the involvement of a production company. According to Deadline, it was fast-tracked by Polly Hill, ITV’s head of drama, after the huge success of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, though Moffat was working on the show before Mr Bates aired.
Talking about the show, Hill said the scripts “are brilliant and do justice to this important story, while bringing it to screen with real clarity and compassion.”
“It’s been a great privilege to meet those infected and affected and to learn about what they have been through,” Moffat said.
“I’m ashamed to say that when I started researching this story I knew next to nothing about it. I’m even more ashamed that this ignorance is shared by nearly everyone I mention it to. The victims of this scandal have been let down again and again by the state – I hope in some small way this drama can help their voices be heard.”
Mr Bates vs The Post Office has been a monumental success for ITV. Airing in January, it told the story of how thousands of subpostmasters across the UK found themselves prosecuted for missing money that was actually the result of a computer glitch.
The show became ITV’s most watched show ever after Downton Abbey, and generated huge support for those affected with the ramifications still unfolding in parliament and beyond
