British Post Offices have been regarded as the envy of the world. Not after this drama was shown.
The fate of the wrongly accused sub-postmasters has been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice ever. Some of the affected people took their own lives. Others had their lives ruined, left financially destitute as the Post Office aided by their lawyers pursued private prosecutions and civil claims knowing their computer system was faulty.
In 1996 the Post Office hired Fujitsu to develop an IT system regarding the collection of pensions and benefits at post offices. Beset with problems it was scrapped at a cost of £700 million.
Hoping that the money spent was not a total loss. The Post Office repurposed the IT system as an accounting software in Post Office branches. Even though doubts were raised regarding its reliability. It was called the Horizon software.
The first episode concentrates on three people. Alan Bates (Toby Jones) Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolen) and Lee Castleton (Will Mellor.)
Three sub-postmasters caught up in the fallout. Jo pleads guilty and recieves a non custodial sentence. Lee tries to fight a civil case on his own and loses. Facing legal costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It is Alan Bates who decides to fight back. Be obstructive against the Post Office bully boys. Eventually with the aid of an IT journalist the word spreads that there are others affected.
It is difficult not to be moved by this drama. What this people went through, some still going through. Also feel angry as to what the Post Office did to them.
The opener sets up a David v Goliath battle with a bent corporate entity out to callously ruin people in order to save face.
The fate of the wrongly accused sub-postmasters has been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice ever. Some of the affected people took their own lives. Others had their lives ruined, left financially destitute as the Post Office aided by their lawyers pursued private prosecutions and civil claims knowing their computer system was faulty.
In 1996 the Post Office hired Fujitsu to develop an IT system regarding the collection of pensions and benefits at post offices. Beset with problems it was scrapped at a cost of £700 million.
Hoping that the money spent was not a total loss. The Post Office repurposed the IT system as an accounting software in Post Office branches. Even though doubts were raised regarding its reliability. It was called the Horizon software.
The first episode concentrates on three people. Alan Bates (Toby Jones) Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolen) and Lee Castleton (Will Mellor.)
Three sub-postmasters caught up in the fallout. Jo pleads guilty and recieves a non custodial sentence. Lee tries to fight a civil case on his own and loses. Facing legal costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It is Alan Bates who decides to fight back. Be obstructive against the Post Office bully boys. Eventually with the aid of an IT journalist the word spreads that there are others affected.
It is difficult not to be moved by this drama. What this people went through, some still going through. Also feel angry as to what the Post Office did to them.
The opener sets up a David v Goliath battle with a bent corporate entity out to callously ruin people in order to save face.