TV shows and movies that led to real-world change

The TV and film industry may be predominantly focused on entertainment but it can be hugely influential on real world issues too sometimes.

Mr Bates Vs the Post Office is the latest drama to fall into this category, prompting nationwide conversation about the Post Office scandal that saw sub-postmasters be falsely accused of fraud, theft and false accounting because of a fault with the company's technical system Horizon.

Read more: What happened to the sub-postmasters on Mr Bates vs The Post Office?

Public outcry has led to a significant amount of changes in the wake of the ITV drama's release. Whilst some have decried the fact it took the release of a TV show for meaningful change to take place, the show's creator Gwyneth Hughes has hit back that "that's what drama was invented to do".

The ITV drama is not the first to lead to real world change, though, and Yahoo is ready to explore them.

Mr Bates Vs the Post Office

Mr Bates Vs the Post Office came out on New Year's Day, and the series received a huge response from the public who took more notice of the scandal and how the victims of it have been struggling to get justice. The series has since become 2024's most watched programme, with 9.2 million viewers tuning into the show's first episode.

The debate around the subject continued long after the show's release, with the real-life sub-postmasters speaking out about their experience and politicians speaking about the subject at great length. On 10 January, prime minister Rishi Sunak issued new legislation that will quash the convictions of those affected.

Read more: Mr Bates Vs the Post Office review: ITV delivers a riveting drama

The new Post Office law will mark a mass exoneration of the hundreds of people wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015, and will mean that they no longer have a criminal record. This has given the sub-postmasters the justice they have been seeking out for years, and gives it to them without waiting years.

In the aftermath of the show's release former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells, who was the company's boss at the time of the scandal, also returned her CBE. The public heavily criticised the fact that Vennells had received the honour when it was brought to their attention, with a petition calling for its removal sky-rocketing in popularity as a result. The public pressure appears to have led to Vennells' decision to ultimately give it back.

An Inconvenient Truth

One film that had a huge impact in the early 2000s was An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary that charted presidential candidate Al Gore's campaign to raise awareness about global warming and climate change.

Whilst the subject is widely debated now and has led to legislation changes, as well as promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, this conversation was strongly prompted by the release of Gore's 2006 documentary.

On a whole, the film helped to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming significantly, and helped give a boost to environmental movements around the world.

The Jinx

Another documentary to make some real-world change is HBO's The Jinx, which culminated in the arrest of Robert Durst who was charged of first degree murder for the death of friend Susan Berman after the show's release, which led to an increased knowledge of the case.

The New York real estate heir agreed to be interviewed for the documentary, which investigated Berman's death in 2000, as well as the 1982 disappearance of Durst's wife Kathie, and the 2001 death of his neighbour Morris Black.

Durst was interviewed twice for the documentary, the second interview was prompted after Berman's stepson shared evidence with the filmmakers that showed an envelope Durst had sent to Berman had same handwriting that matched an anonymous letter sent to police following her murder. In the second interview, Durst denied having written the envelope but was recorded making an off-camera statement to himself in which he said he "killed them all".

After being arrested in 2015 and he was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2021 for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Durst died on 10 January 2022.

Seaspiracy

Netflix's 2021 documentary Seaspiracy challenged the fishing industry with its investigation of the environmental impact of overfishing, plastic pollution, and the devastating impact of this on marine ecosystems around the world.

While the documentary has been the subject of much controversy for its criticisms of sustainable fishing and calling for the end of fish consumption overall, it did bring an increased awareness of overfishing and the environmental impact of it on marine life.