'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' Brings Gut-Wrenching Humanity to Britain's Postal Scandal

The much-anticipated Mr Bates vs the Post Office limited series has finally premiered on Masterpiece, plunging us into the heart of the British postal service scandal of the early aughts. The first episode unfolds the plight of Alan Bates (Toby Jones) and a group of local postmasters who fell victim to a scam, leading to financial ruin, business closures, and even imprisonment due to the malfunctioning of the Horizon computing machines in the U.K. postal service put in every local post office. 

The narrative unfolds with Alan's steadfast refusal to sign his post-office statements, convinced of the machine's error. Central office officers attempt to coerce him into surrendering his books. When he stands his ground, he and his partner Suzanne (Julie Hesmondhalgh) are compelled to shutter their post office and start anew in the countryside. Alan's unwavering determination to clear their names is evident as he clings to the research and documents exonerating him and Suzanne. 

Meanwhile, Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolan) struggles with math, so she assumes the Horizon machine is always correct. A particularly disheartening scene shows Jo calling the Horizon helpline, explaining she doesn't know where the machine is coming up with the two-thousand-pound number it is showing her. The woman working the helpline instructs Jo to correct the balance, but instead, the balance doubles. Upon hearing that, the helpline worker washes her hands of the situation and declares Jo responsible for paying the balance. 

Horrifyingly, this isn't the first time this has happened and Jo is now at the point where she has to remortgage her house to pay these charges. It's devastating to watch Jo continue to dig herself so far into debt she eventually has to plead guilty to fraudulent signature charges to get out of the mess. It is only because of the support of her community and character statements that she avoids jail time, but she does lose her business and has to do community service for a year. 

Lee Castleton (Will Mellor) fares even worse. He calls the postal service for an audit, thinking they'll help him figure out what's going wrong with the Horizon machine. Instead of helping, they balloon the amount he owes, forcing him to go to court to dispute the claim. He's so sure of his innocence that he doesn't spend the extra money for a lawyer. "We've just got to trust in the British justice system and tell the truth. It'll be alright," Lee tells his wife. He goes to court but can't prove a systemwide problem with the Horizon machines, so he is found guilty. 

Not only does he have to pay the 25 thousand pounds Horizon incorrectly computed, but he also has to pay for the postal service's court costs, which brings his total debt to 321 thousand pounds. Luckily, he has an electrician certification to rely on, but his family goes bankrupt in the aftermath of his court case. Like Alan, Lee refuses to let the whole thing go, even after his day in court. He reaches out to a journalist, Rebecca Thomson (Matilda Bailes), to assert that there must be a bug in the Horizon computer system, and he refuses to believe he is the only one. 

Rebecca finds Alan and Jo and starts connecting the stories. She also brings in Noel Thomas (Ifan Huw Dafydd), who worked for the postal service for 42 years before they accused him of fraud and sent him to prison for nine months. After reading Rebecca's story, Alan gets all of his paperwork out of the attic and starts putting the puzzle pieces together.

Alan and Suzanne decide to put a call out to all postmasters who have experienced trouble with the Horizon system. They set a meeting in Fenny Compton, a tiny little village in the center of the country, and expect only a handful of people to show up. Instead, dozens show up, proving that the Horizon system has been causing widespread chaos. 

The episode condenses many real-life events that led to Alan Bates filing a class-action suit against the British Postal Service. However, it does an excellent job of showing the humanity behind the case. It introduces us to characters who show how emotionally, physically, and economically devastated the subpostmasters were by the scandal emotionally, physically, and economically. Getting you to root wholeheartedly for David is crucial in a David vs. Goliath story, and the first episode of Mr Bates vs the Post Office does a masterful job of that. 

As heart-wrenching as it was to see these good people bankrupted by a corrupt system, the premiere does end on an optimistic note. Alan brings all of the subpostmasters together in Fenny Compton and promises they all have each other now: "From this moment forward, none of us will ever be the only ones ever again," he says. So now we move forward and see how Alan and this courageous group take down a 300-plus-year institution. 

Mr Bates vs the Post Office continues on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on PBS, with new episodes available streaming on the PBS App and the PBS Prime Video Channel.