'Masterpiece' Lands 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office'

I said Mr. Bates vs. The Post Office was "perfect PBS fare;" apparently, Masterpiece agreed with me. The anthology series agreed with me so much that it has upended the entire planned spring schedule for 2024 to make room for it. PBS announced today that Suranne Jones' MaryLand, which was initially planned to air starting April 7, 2024, has been ingloriously shoved down to the calendar and will now premiere on Sunday, May 5, to make a four-week space to fit in the Toby Jones series that had become ITV's biggest hit since Downton Abbey.

Full disclosure/humblebrag: I have been saying that Mr. Bates vs the Post Office is perfect for Masterpiece since I initially saw ITV commission it back in 2021. Gwyneth Hughes, who was doing the upcoming Tom Jones, was writing it; it was a nerdy story about a real-life crime. But it was not a thriller murder true crime, but an IT screw-up that made it look like hundreds of low-level post office workers were stealing from the tills of the U.K. mail offices nationwide. They were then falsely charged and convicted of mail fraud by their own government. It was a Frontline special in Masterpiece clothing.

Then ITV cast a PBS murderer's row of Toby Jones (The Long Shadow), Lia Williams (The Capture), Alex Jennings (The Crown), Shaun Dooley (Criminal Record), Clare Calbraith (Grace), Lesley Nicol (Downton Abbey), and Amit Shah (Happy Valley), and I could not for the life of me understand why this wasn't on Masterpiece unless BritBox must've already snatched up the rights or something. But no, it was just that no one realized how perfect this was for public television until it hit the airwaves and went from must-see TV to a must-act-on government scandal in days. Luckily, Masterpiece acted quickly, and the series will debut in the U.S. in April.