It is worth remembering that the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs the Post Office was only broadcast at the start of January this year, which seems remarkably recent given the extent of its impact. It dramatised the Post Office Horizon scandal, one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in living memory, and in doing so brought it to the very front of the conversation in public life. By painting the story in bold human colours, the programme showed the nation the fallout from the faulty Horizon IT system, owned by Fujitsu, which led to hundreds (at least) of Post Office workers being wrongly prosecuted for theft.
As Will Mellor discovers in the lean, powerful documentary Surviving the Post Office, the human cost has been appalling, and countless lives have been devastated. In many cases, the social consequences of these accusations were as horrifying as the legal ramifications. Those falsely accused of wrongdoing were ostracised, spat at and shouted at in the street. One woman recalls having a brick thrown through the window of her house. Mellor takes her to her old street after 16 years. She has not been able to face going back before now. What happens when she gets there is deeply affecting. Like her, many victims were forced to move. Their neighbours believed that they had stolen from pensioners and exploited their communities, when the employees were the ones being exploited.
