Yahoo News Marvel, The Crown and It's a Sin stars team up for new ITV drama
Marvel, The Crown and It's a Sin stars are teaming up for a new ITV drama about one of the UK's biggest legal miscarries of justice.
A four-part ITV1 and ITVX drama series called Mr Bates vs. The Post Office is inspired by the real story of hundreds of wrongful convictions of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses for the British Post Office.
The scandal involved a faulty IT system used as evidence in the wrongful convictions of postal workers accused of theft, fraud and false accounting between 2000 and 2013. In 2021, the British government finally promised to pay restitution to postal workers impacted by the mistake.
The whistleblower, Alan Bates, will be played by Captain America star Toby Jones in this dramatisation of the Court of Appeals case that ultimately overturned wrongful convictions.
"I am proud to be a part of this shocking, unsettling but ultimately inspirational drama," Jones said.
The real Alan Bates, who's consulting on the series, added: "This is one of the most egregious scandals the country has ever seen and a major corporation has managed to keep it covered up for years.
"Thankfully this has now been exposed and the victims are finally on their way to finding the justice they deserve."
The ensemble cast also includes It's a Sin and Coronation Street's Julie Hesmondhalgh and fellow Corrie star Will Mellor, The Crown's Lia Williams and Alex Jennings, Black Mirror's Monica Dolan and Downton Abbey's Lesley Nicol and Clare Calbraith.
Others featuring in the show will be Gentleman Jack's Shaun Dooley, Happy Valley's Amit Shah, Vigil's Adam James and Doctor Who: Class' Katherine Kelly.
Executive producer Natasha Bondy has said: “Despite this being a scandal that is now widely regarded as the biggest miscarriage of justice in our country's legal history, it's still a story that many people don't know about. We hope this series changes that.”
Filming has officially started on Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, but there is no firm release date yet for ITV1 and ITVX.
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