Post Office scandal

uk.yahoo.com

Response to ITV Post Office drama ‘shows power of factual content’

Actor Seb Carrington is hoping the power of the drama will lead to more factual dramas being commissioned, including his own.
uk.yahoo.com uk.yahoo.com

Ellie Iorizzo, PA Los Angeles Correspondent
Thu, 11 January 2024 at 2:45 am GMT


Actor and creator Seb Carrington has spoken of the importance of TV factual dramas following the “incredible public response” to Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
The ITV show, starring Toby Jones, Will Mellor, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh, has shone a light on how subpostmasters were wrongly convicted over money which was missing due to faulty Horizon accounting software.
The Crown star Carrington, 31, is hoping the power of the ITV drama will lead to more TV factual dramas being commissioned, including his own about the infected blood scandal.

“Since the Post Office scandal, everyone is thinking why do we not have a TV drama about the infected blood scandal so now we can go back and double down on our convictions,” he told the PA news agency.

“A TV drama goes into people’s living rooms, it goes into their lives, and you’re made to sit and live with these characters for quite a few hours, which is a substantial amount of time, much longer than just reading a newspaper article.
“And through that time, you get to see the the layer-upon-layer of scandal and the impact it has emotionally and physically on these victims.”
Carrington, who has also appeared in the West End, said he has haemophilia and so did his brother James, who contracted hepatitis through the scandal in the 1980s, but later died in a car accident.
Despite having his own experiences, Carrington’s TV drama is based around the boys who contracted hepatitis at Treloar’s College, a school for disabled children with a facility on site for haemophiliacs.

Carrington said he reached out to a number of commissioners, including the BBC, but it was felt “there wasn’t much space for more factual dramas on their slate”.
He told PA he has got “so much hope” for the future of TV factual dramas “given the incredible public response” to Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
“I think it’s brilliant that they’ve had this effect,” he said. “I’m delighted for the victims, they’ve been fighting for justice themselves for so long.
“It’s a shame in some ways that it takes a TV drama to force politicians to do the right thing.
“But it seems these days politicians will only do the right thing when it’s in public knowledge and therefore, in some ways, reflecting well on the politician.”
 
I watched something about this last night, proper documentary, that Paula who handed back the CBE or whatever it was should be sent to prison for at least 10 years and Alun Bates should receive a knighthood
 
On the radio at lunch time, to hear current PO people still having problems and subsidising the PO with their retail sales, pensions or savings was a shock. The new IT system coming, is apparently to be ‘in the cloud’. Who is heading up this one? Might it be Fujitsu’s partner, Infosys?

All of the participant’s in the programme had their businesses up for sale. They described the PO debacle as ‘toxic’ to such sales. They were all facing bankruptcy. Apparently the main POs use the same IT system (Horizon) but do not appear to be affected. Just the sub-post offices.
 

Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know | Computer Weekly

Computer Weekly has investigated the Post Office Horizon scandal since 2008 and is, in fact, part of the story. This guide covers essential information about the scandal.
www.computerweekly.com www.computerweekly.com

"The Post Office used criminal and civil legal action to shut subpostmasters up. If subpostmasters continued to complain and make noise about the system, it would find ways to stop them because it didn’t want the wider network of branch operators to find out.

For example, if a subpostmaster being blamed for an unexplained shortfall sought expert IT advice, the Post Office would often back down. In 2003, when the Post Office was suing a subpostmaster who was blaming Horizon for shortfalls at her branch in Lancashire, a judge ordered it to appoint an expert IT witness. When the expert revealed problems with Horizon, the Post Office paid off the subpostmaster and forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

At around the same time, the Post Office took Lee Castleton, a subpostmaster in Bridlington, to court over an unexplained shortfall of £35,000. Castleton, who was one of the first seven victims interviewed by Computer Weekly, refused to pay the money, citing computer problems as the cause of the shortfall. The Post Office spent over £300,000 crushing Castleton in court. It bankrupted him and devastated his and his family’s life.

The Post Office also sent people to prison to make an example of them. Former subpostmaster Seema Misra was prosecuted and sent to prison based on evidence from the Horizon system. After she was convicted, former Post Office head of criminal law Jarnail Singh wrote a celebratory email to colleagues, claiming this result would stop others from “jumping on the Horizon bashing bandwagon”."
 
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