Stamping out an injustice: 'Mr. Bates vs The Post Office' delves into one of the greatest scandals in British legal history

Apr. 7—Gwyneth Hughes knows a good story when she hears it.

This is the reason she dusted off her journalist hat and began writing the script for "Mr. Bates vs The Post Office."

The four-part Masterpiece series premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 7, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. A new episode will premiere at 8 p.m. April 14, 21 and 28. It is also available to stream via PBS Passport.

Hughes didn't have to go far to tell the story.

She used the real-life British Post Office scandal for its roots, which is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

The limited series was created with direct input from the innocent — and indomitable — people caught up in it.

Hughes says following the United Kingdom broadcast on ITV, the series set off a firestorm of public interest and, within eight days of premiering, the Prime Minister announced a new law to pardon the victims who had been wrongly convicted.

Hughes starts the series when money starts to seemingly disappear from its local branches, the government-owned Post Office wrongly blaming their own managers for its apparent loss. For more than a decade, hundreds were accused of theft and fraud, and many were even sent to prison — leaving lives, marriages and reputations in ruins.

But the issue was actually caused by errors in the Post Office's own computer system — something it denied for years.

Revealing a shocking David vs. Goliath fight for justice, this is the story of the decent ordinary people who were relentlessly pursued, coerced and controlled by a powerful corporation, and their ongoing battle, against seemingly insurmountable odds, to right so many horrific wrongs.

"I've spent a lot of time with the subpostmasters at the heart of this fightback, whose lives were turned upside down by this appalling business," Hughes says. "They are a very British bunch of lively, interesting and indomitable people who never gave up, and I'm honored to bring their stories to an international audience. I still find it just astonishing, and deeply troubling, that this could have happened in my country; I confess it's shaken my confidence in British justice. So it's been extraordinary and humbling to witness how a huge television audience can force change."

The cast includes Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alex Jennings, Ian Hart, Lia Williams, Will Mellor, Clare Calbraith, Shaun Dooley, Amit Shah, Lesley Nicol, Adam James and Katherine Kelly.

Hughes tried to meet with everybody that would give her time.

"I went out with my notebook to do the reporting," she says. "When I took this on three years ago, COVID was still rampant. The original meetings were over Zoom. I was the most grateful person in the country because these people were opening up to me and telling their story. I felt a huge responsibility."

While Hughes worked on the series, there was public inquiry to what happened in the early 2000s.

"It was such a mad time and in a way, the people who I was working with and connected with, they were fighting to be heard," she says. "In the end, it works out. With the public inquiry growing, it was good timing."