You may have noticed an uptick in news stories about the Post Office Scandal as 2023 ended.
One reason is the time spent by many broadsheet journos reviewing where the Public Inquiry has brought us. Lawyers have been in the spotlight. Warnings on self incrimination have been handed out, including to (so far) two solicitor witnesses. A leading silk is reported to be watching the Inquiry closely for the CPS. And in 2024 some legal big dogs get hauled out of the shadows. I would be very surprised indeed if Lords Grabiner and Neuberger, and Mr Brian Altman KC do not give evidence. The Inquiry will be asking them what star these three ordinarily wise men were following when they sought to help PO out of the holes they were in. It takes big bucks to make the Death Star twinkle and we will learn how they and a raft of other lawyers helped drive a legal strategy of Palpitine hubris.
The second reason is ITV have been promoting their drama, Mr Bates v the Post Office. I’ve been fortunate enough to see the first half of this four part drama. It airs tonight and every night this week from 9pm on ITV and then on ITVx. One of the delights is the cast. Led by the one of actings finest, Toby Jones, it is in reality, as the story is itself, an ensemble piece. Jones plays Alan Bates. The extraordinary, dogged, irrepresibly decent and rather private man who gives the drama its name. The whole cast shine and give the likes of Jo Hamilton, Lee Castleton, Noel Thomas, and Michael Rudkin the performances they deserve. Krupa Pattani, who plays Saman Kaur, nails the horror of this story in a way which may break your heart. Warmth, humour, anger, the shocking – sometime quite literally – collapse of lives, and the indomitable spirit the victims showed, and continue to show privately and publicly, are written right through a story told with great pace and clarity.
Decency and niceness are such ordinary words, and rarely the stuff of drama, but the show’s writer Gwyneth Hughes has done an amazing job making great telly out of them. Then again, she knew she had extraordinary, indomitable people and an incredible story to bring to life.
